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HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 


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A  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  UNDER 
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HISTORICAL  BRIEFS, 


BY 

JAMES    SCHOULER. 


aEitlj  a  13iograp{)s. 


NEW   YORK: 
DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY. 

1896. 


^^ 


Copyright,  1896, 
By  Dodd,  Mead  and  Company. 


University  Press  : 
John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U.  S.  A. 


TO  THE 
AMERICAN   HISTORICAL  ASSOCIATION, 

AT   WHOSE    ANNUAL   MEETINGS   MANY   OF    THESE    ESSAYS    HAVE    BEEN 
READ,  AND   FROM    WHOSE    MEMBERS,  COLLECTIVELY   AND   AS 
INDIVIDUALS,  I    HAVE    RECEIVED   THE    CHIEF    LITER- 
ARY   ENCOURAGEMENT    OF    MATURE    LIFE, 

Z\]is  Uolume 

IS   AFFECTIONATELY   DEDICATED   BY 

THE  AUTHOR. 


PUBLISHERS'  NOTE. 


With  the  exception  of  two  Review  articles,  which 
it  was  thought  best  to  omit,^  this  volume  contains  all 
of  Professor  Schouler's  Historical  Miscellanies  which 
have  hitherto  been  read  or  printed  by  him;  and  in 
order  to  complete  the  range  of  discussion  pursued  by 
the  general  essays  contained  herein,  he  has  added 
two  —  "  Historical  Monographs  "  and  "  Historical 
Style" — which  are  published  in  this  book  for  the 
first  time.  Our  author's  lecture  courses,  and  the 
many  professional  papers  from  his  pen  which  have 
appeared  in  the  legal  periodicals,  are  of  course 
omitted. 

The  Biography  will  be  found  a  unique  and  impor- 
tant feature  of  the  present  volume,  and  the  publishers 
trust  it  may  prove  interesting  and  helpful  to  the  gen- 
eral reader.  The  narrative  is  prepared  from  fresh 
and  original  materials  supplied  by  the  author  himself, 
and  its  truthfulness  may  be  relied  upon. 

1  "Our  Diplomacy  during  the  Rebellion,"  North  American  Review, 
April,  1866;  "The  Hawaiian  Conquest,"  The  Forum,  February,  1894. 


CONTENTS. 


T.   HISTORICAL  BRIEFS:  page 

Francis  Parkman 1 

Historical  Grouping 16 

Spirit  of  Research 22 

Historical  Industries 34 

Historical  Monographs 48 

Historical  Testimony 60 

Historical  Style 71 

Lafayette's  Tour  in  1824 85 

Monroe  and  the  Rhea  Letter 97 

President  Polk's  Diary 121 

President  Polk's  Administration       ....  139 

Reform  in  Presidential  Elections    ....  160 

II.    BIOGRAPHY: 

I 169 

H.      ' 177 

III.  (1839-1846) 188 

IV.  (1847-1855) 206 

V.    (1855-1859) 223 

VI.    (1860-1866) 242 

VII.    (1866-1872) 261 

VIII.    (1873-1896) „     .     .  281 


HISTOEICAL  BEIEFS. 


FRANCIS  PARKMAN. 


The  illustrious  scholar  and  historian,  whose  death 
we  have  deplored  so  recently,  found  physical  draw- 
backs to  his  work  to  hinder  and  discourage.  But  all 
the  greater  is  his  meed  of  success  because  he  sur- 
mounted them.  His  life  was,  on  the  whole,  a  happy 
one,  and  rounded  out  in  rare  conformity  to  its  ap- 
pointed task ;  he  passed  the  Psalmist's  full  limit  of 
years,  as  few  of  our  English-speaking  historians  have 
done ;  and,  however  slow  or  painful  might  have  been 
his  progress,  he  completed  in  his  riper  years  the  great 
enterprise  which  he  had  projected  in  early  life.  Like 
one  of  those  fair  roses  which  in  hours  of  recreation 
he  so  fondly  cultivated,  his  literary  reputation  has 
lingered  in  full  blossom,  dispersing  its  delicate  fra- 
grance and  beauty  among  all  beholders. 

Circumscription  in  the  activities  of  the  present  life, 
when  once  felt  to  be  inevitable,  will  turn  the  studious 
mind  to  closer  communion  with  the  past ;  and  a  last- 
ing solace,  no  less  than  a  source  of  usefulness,  may 
be  found  in  identifying  one's  self  with  those  earlier 
generations  of  mankind,  among  whom  he  moves 
superior,  with  his  own  little  particle  of  Divine  om- 

Reprinted  from  "  Harvard  Graduates'  Magazine,"  March,  1894. 

1 


2  HISTORICAL   BRIEFS. 

niscience,  cognizant  of  the  consequences  where  they 
had  groped  blindly,  and  feeling  for  them  accordingly 
a  human  sympathy  somewhat  allied  to  compassion. 
Two  eminent  historians  at  least  ^  have  Massachusetts 
and  our  own  Harvard  University  sent  forth  to  the 
world,  especially  consecrated  thus  to  their  vocation, 
—  William  Hickling  Prescott  and  Francis  Parkman ; 
and  it  must  surely  prove  strange  if  the  individual 
career  of  the  earlier  of  these  studious  invalids  did 
not  largely  influence  the  later.  Both  came  of  native 
New  England  stock,  in  which  culture  and  taste  were 
hereditary;  both  were  true-hearted  gentlemen  by 
temperament  and  training;  both  had  strong  social 
and  family  roots  in  proud,  intellectual  Boston,  so 
that  seclusion  simply  clarified  their  acquaintance. 
Each  inherited  a  fortune  sufficient  to  relieve  him 
from  pecuniary  anxiety.  The  literary  tasks  of  the 
two  were  closely  related  in  subject  and  method  of 
development ;  Mr.  Prescott's  theme  comprising  Span- 
ish dominion  in  the  New  World,  Mr.  Parkman's  the 
later  dominion  of  France ;  and  each  directing  his  re- 
search to  distant  European  documents,  Avliile  out  of 
pictorial  incidents  which  involved  the  native  races  he 
constructed  narratives  which,  grouped  together,  might 
vividly  illustrate  a  broad  historical  period,  without 
assuming  the  pronounced  garb  of  consecutive  history. 
Their  struggles  against  partial  blindness  and  disability 
from  the  outset  were  singularly  alike,  and  to  some 
extent  their  experience  in  the  assistance  of  an  amanu- 
ensis. Some  new  tale  of  patience  and  iron  perse- 
verance under  literary  obstacles  may  possibly  await 
us  from  Mr.  Parkman's  surviving  family.  But  long 
ago  he  must  have  been  deeply  impressed  in  his  own 

1  Unless  tradition  errs,  a  third  might  fittingly  be  named,  in  Richard 
Hildreth. 


FRANCIS  PARKMAX.  3 

person  ^\dth  the  facts  of  Mr.  Prescott's  beautiful  life, 
which,  as  written  by  the  felicitous  pen  of  George 
Ticknor,  is  certainly  the  most  stimulating  biography 
for  studious  aspirants  that  ever  was  written.  Mr. 
Prescott's  fame  was  at  its  meridian  when  Mr.  Park- 
man's  star  first  dawned,  and  his  most  popular  work, 
"  The  Conquest  of  Mexico,"  —  a  dramatic  episode  and 
a  tragedy,  as  is  also  the  "  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac,"  — 
came  out  while  Boston's  younger  delineator  was  at 
college.  Often,  indeed,  must  this  junior  explorer  of 
colonial  history  have  felt  in  his  own  heart,  whether 
prompted  or  unprompted,  as  he  pursued  his  studious 
round,  what  INIr.  Prescott  has  so  fittingly  recorded: 
"  On  the  whole  there  is  no  happiness  so  great  as  that 
of  a  permanent  and  lively  interest  in  some  intellect- 
ual labor.  No  other  enjoyment  can  compensate  or 
approach  to  the  steady  satisfaction  and  constantly  in- 
creasing interest  of  active  literary  labor,  the  subject 
of  meditation  when  I  am  out  of  my  study,  of  diligent 
and  stimulating  activity  within;  to  say  nothing  of 
the  comfortable  consciousness  of  directing  my  powers 
in  some  channel  worthy  of  them,  and  of  contributing 
something  to  the  stock  of  useful  knowledge  in  the 
world." 

Francis  Parkman  was  born  in  Boston,  September 
16,  1823.  He  came  of  a  line  of  honorable  Massachu- 
setts ancestors,  among  whom  were  college  graduates 
and  Congregational  clergymen  with  literary  acquire- 
ments. From  his  grandfather,  a  wealthy  and  prosper- 
ous Boston  merchant,  he  seems  to  have  inherited  that 
decided  taste  for  floriculture  which  became  a  marked 
accomplishment;  fondness  for  books  and  study  being, 
in  a  broader  sense,  a  family  trait.  His  father,  whose 
Christian  name  he  bore,  had  been  a  favorite  pupil 
and   admirer  of  Dr.  Channing,  whose  liberal   tenets 


4  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

he  preached  at  the  New  North  Church  in  Boston,  of 
which  he  was  pastor  for  many  years.  His  uncle, 
George  Parkman,  was  a  physician.  Both  father  and 
uncle  gave  freely  from  their  ample  means  to  Harvard 
University;  the  one  to  aid  the  Divinity  and  the  other 
the  Medical  School ;  and  the  Parkman  professorship 
of  pulpit  eloquence  and  pastoral  care  commemorated 
in  our  college  catalogue  the  family  surname  years 
before  a  son's  literary  fame  promised  it  an  academic 
lustre  far  greater  than  beneficence  alone  could  bestow. 
An  inbred  taste  for  letters  combined  from  early 
boyhood  with  a  love  of  woodland  adventure  to  direct 
the  youth's  destiny.  Frail  when  a  child,  Francis  was 
sent  to  the  country  home  of  a  maternal  relative,  near 
the  Middlesex  Fells,  where  he  remained  for  several 
years.  That  magnificent  forest  tract,  still  in  its 
primitive  wildness,  gave  him  a  first  sympathetic  ac- 
quaintance with  out-of-doors  life,  which  he  never  lost. 
Returning  home,  when  turned  of  twelve,  he  pursued 
his  classical  studies  at  a  private  school  in  Boston, 
and  entered  Harvard  College  in  1840,  just  seventeen 
years  of  age.  Here  once  more  the  fondness  for  forest 
life  was  manifested ;  he  spent  one  college  vacation  in 
camping  and  canoeing  on  the  Magalloway  River,  in 
northern  Maine,  to  this  day  a  favorite  haunt  of  the 
sportsman ;  and  in  the  course  of  another,  he  explored 
the  calm  waters  of  Lakes  George  and  Champlain,  a 
region  redolent  with  traditions  of  the  old  French  and 
Indian  War.  Sickness  once  more  diverting  him  from 
his  regular  studies,  he  was  sent  on  a  voyage  to  Europe, 
from  which  he  returned  in  season  to  graduate  with 
his  class  in  1844.  In  the  course  of  his  foreign  tour 
he  visited  Rome,  and,  lodging  in  a  monastery  of  the 
Passionist  Fathers,  he  learned  something  by  observa- 
tion, for  the  first  time,  of  those  missionary  agencies 


FRANCIS  PARKMAN,  5 

which  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  had  employed  in 
former  centuries  with  so  much  effect  for  reclaiming 
the  red  tribes  of  our  great  interior  wilderness. 

By  this  time,  and  indeed  as  early  as  his  sophomore 
year  at  college,  and  before  passing  out  of  his  teens, 
young  Parkman  had  formed  the  distinct  design  of 
writing  a  history  of  the  French  and  Indian  War ;  and 
what  to  others  might  have  seemed  the  casual  recrea- 
tion of  youth  bore  immediately,  from  his  own  serious 
point  of  view,  upon  a  precocious  purpose.  Heeding 
the  wishes  of  his  elders,  he  gave  some  two  years  after 
graduation  to  the  dry  study  of  the  law ;  but  destiny 
proved  paramount,  and  in  the  summer  of  1846  he  was 
seen  starting  for  the  far  West,  with  a  young  kinsman 
and  college-mate  for  a  companion,  ostensibly  seeking 
personal  adventure,  but  in  reality  resolved  upon  pre- 
paring himself  by  personal  observation  for  the  great 
literaiy  task  of  life.  A  printed  volume,  which  gath- 
ered in  the  course  of  three  years  a  series  of  sketches 
he  had  meantime  contributed  to  the  "  Knickerbocker 
Magazine,"  descriptive  of  these  wild  experiences,  was 
his  first  exploit  in  authorship ;  and  under  the  style  of 
the  "  Oregon  Trail,"  these  sketches  with  their  original 
title  first  modified,  and  then  restored,  made  up  a  book 
still  prominent  in  our  literature.  Here  the  narrator 
himself  is  traveller  and  pioneer,  supplying  materials 
of  contemporaneous  description  for  historians  of  a 
later  day  to  draw  upon.  An  acute  comprehension  of 
strange  scenery  and  strange  people  remote  from  con- 
ventional society,  faithfulness  to  facts,  and  the  power 
of  delineating  with  humor  and  picturesque  effect 
whatever  may  be  best  worth  describing,  are  evinced 
in  this  earliest  effort ;  and  the  impressiveness  of  the 
volume  is  greatly  enhanced  by  the  preface  which  the 
author  inserted  in  a  later  edition,  recalling  vividly 


6  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

from  the  retrospect  of  another  quarter  of  a  century 
the  wild  scenes  and  lonely  cavalcade  which  were 
already  of  the  remote  past,  never  in  that  once  remote 
and  lonely  Pike's  Peak  region  to  be  beheld  again. 
It  was  in  1846  that  the  Mexican  War  was  declared, 
whose  first  announcement  reached  our  young  explor- 
ers while  they  were  far  out  on  the  plains,  though  in 
season  to  give  them  that  summer  a  sight  of  Doniphan's 
military  expedition,  as  well  as  of  those  more  peaceful 
emigrant  bands  whose  winding  way  was  toward  Ore- 
gon, California,  and  the  Salt  Lake  wilderness,  igno- 
rant of  gold  and  bent  only  upon  agriculture.  Curious 
observers  only  of  such  momentous  caravans,  the  two 
Boston  youths  itidulged  their  bent  by  camping  among 
the  Sioux  Indians,  and  living  upon  rough  and  precari- 
ous Indian  fare,  listening  to  Indian  legends,  studying 
Indian  traits  and  customs,  and  hunting  the  buffalo 
with  their  roving  companions.  The  young  historian 
gained  the  information  he  sought ;  but  he  paid  dearly 
for  his  rash  opportunity,  for  he  was  confirmed  in 
invalid  habits  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 

"  The  Oregon  Trail "  is  autobiographical,  and  so 
too  are  occasional  passages  in  the  prefaces  which  Mr. 
Parkman  has  written  for  his  later  successful  works, 
more  strictly  historical.  Of  the  probable  influence 
upon  his  labors  of  the  renowned  Prescott,  his  older 
fellow-sufferer  and  fellow-citizen,  we  have  spoken. 
To  Washington  Irving's  "Astoria,"  Mr.  Parkman's 
"  Oregon  Trail "  makes  familiar  reference ;  and  very 
likely  to  recitals  of  Indian  hardships  borne  by  his 
New  England  ancestors  were  added,  by  the  time  he 
became  a  college  student,  the  fascinating  delight  of 
Cooper's  "Leather  Stocking  Tales,"  whose  romance 
of  the  French  and  Indian  period  has  not  yet  lost  its 
attractive    hold    upon    American    youth.      Fortified 


FRANCIS  PARKMAN.  7 

further  by  his  own  practical  contact  with  primitive 
life,  whose  recital  had  marked  his  first  launch  in 
literature,  he  buckled  down  to  the  graver  task  of 
historian  and  portrayer  of  the  past.  But  the  star  of 
strength  and  of  the  unconquerable  will  he  had  now 
full  need  to  invoke.  From  the  day  he  returned  from 
the  far  West  to  the  day  of  his  death  he  was  never 
again  entirely  well.  Chief  among  the  obstacles  to 
retard  his  progress  was  the  condition  of  his  sight; 
and  for  about  three  years  the  light  of  day  was  insup- 
portable, and  every  attempt  to  read  or  write  com- 
pletely debarred.  Indeed,  as  Mr.  Parkman  has 
recorded,  there  were  two  periods  preceding  1865, 
each  lasting  several  years,  during  wdiich  such  labors 
'Svould  have  been  merely  suicidal,"  and  his  health 
forbade  reading  or  writing  for  much  over  five  minutes 
at  a  time,  and  often  forbade  it  altogether.  Only  by 
the  most  rigid  perseverance  and  economy  of  strength 
could  such  disheartening  obstacles  be  overcome.  In 
sifting  materials,  and  in  composition,  he  had  to  rely 
largely,  like  Mr.  Prescott,  upon  memory  and  the 
sense  of  hearing.  His  amanuensis  would  repeatedly 
read  the  papers  aloud,  copious  notes  and  extracts 
being  simultaneously  made ;  but  instead  of  composing 
in  solitude  and  having  recourse  to  the  stylus  and 
noctograph,  he  relied  rather  upon  dictation  to  his 
secretary,  who  would  write  down  the  narrative  as  he 
pronounced  it.  "This  process,"  he  adds  cheerfully 
of  his  own  general  plan,  "  though  extremely  slow  and 
laborious,  was  not  without  its  advantages,  and  I  am 
well  convinced  that  the  authorities  have  been  even 
more  minutely  examined,  more  scrupulously  collected, 
and  more  thoroughly  digested  than  they  would  have 
been  under  ordinary  circumstances." 

The  habit  of  travelling,  to  visit  described  localities, 


8  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS, 

—  favored  as  it  is  so  greatly  in  later  times  by  our 
improved  facilities  of  travel,  —  is  one  for  every  nar- 
rator of  events  to  turn  to  account;  for  not  only  may 
interesting  traditions  be  gathered  on  the  spot,  but 
one  procures  details  of  local  coloring  which  others 
could  never  catalogue  for  him,  and  gains  besides  the 
inspiration  of  great  surroundings.  To  Mr.  Parkman, 
with  his  delicate  constitution,  such  journeys  must 
have  afforded  a  relaxing  relief  and  diversion,  besides 
the  indulgence  of  a  strong  natural  taste  and  disposi- 
tion. Through  wild  regions  of  the  North  and  West, 
by  the  camp-fire  or  in  the  canoe,  he  had  already 
gained  familiar  acquaintance,  and  he  still  continued 
to  visit  and  examine  every  spot,  near  or  remote, 
where  the  important  incidents  which  he  described 
occurred.  The  extensive  seat  of  the  final  French 
and  Indian  struggle,  the  whole  region  of  Detroit,  the 
St.  Lawrence,  and  Plains  of  Abraham,  as  well  as 
remote  Florida,  became  thus  familiar  to  him.  "In 
short,"  as  he  wrote  in  1884,  reiterating  what  he  had 
said  in  other  volumes  already,  "  the  subject  has  been 
studied  as  much  from  life  in  the  open  air  as  at  the 
library  table." 

But  none  the  less  was  Mr.  Parkman  a  steady 
worker  in  his  library;  and  his  search  for  original 
documents  and  among  masses  of  rare  material  was 
incessant.  Whatever  might  be  the  immediate  sub- 
ject, he  gathered  such  valuable  collections  of  papers, 
in  any  way  accessible,  as  might  aid  his  description. 
The  truth  of  the  past,  and  the  whole  truth,  he  dili- 
gently inquired  into.  He  was  not  content  with  sec- 
ondary authorities,  but  searched  for  primary  ones  in 
the  most  conscientious  and  thorough  manner;  and 
he  founded  each  narrative  as  largely  as  possible  upon 
original  and   contemporary  materials,   collating  with 


FRANCIS  PARKMAN.  9 

the  greatest  care,  and  only  accepting  the  statements 
of  secondary  writers  when  found  to  conform  to  those 
who  lived  in  the  times.  In  short,  as  he  expressed 
himself,  he  was  too  fond  of  his  theme  to  neglect  any 
means  within  his  reach  of  making  his  conception  of 
it  distinct  and  true.  All  this  was  necessitated  to  a 
considerable  extent  by  the  crude  and  promiscuous 
character  of  the  publications  offered  in  the  present 
choice  of  subjects;  for  the  history  of  the  French 
colonization  in  America  was  as  wild,  when  Mr. 
Parkman  took  it  up  for  research,  as  that  colonization 
itself.  "The  field  of  the  history,"  as  he  forcibly 
observes,  "was  uncultured  and  unreclaimed,  and  the 
labor  that  awaited  me  was  like  that  of  the  border 
settler,  who,  before  he  builds  his  rugged  dwelling, 
must  fell  the  forest  trees,  burn  the  undergrowth, 
clear  the  ground,  and  hew  the  fallen  trunks  in  due 
proportion."  Yet  under  the  old  French  regime  in 
Canada  the  pen  was  always  busy,  and  among  reports 
to  be  found  in  the  French  archives  were  voluminous 
records.  To  make  his  investigations  closer  he  visited 
Europe  in  1858,  soon  after  the  death  of  his  wife,  and 
prosecuted  his  researches  among  the  public  collections 
of  France,  Spain,  and  England.  Other  visits  followed 
in  1868,  1872,  1880,  and  1881,  after  the  scope  of  his 
historical  work  had  enlarged,  chiefly  at  Paris.  His 
preparations  for  composition  were  thus  exhaustive, 
and  he  spared  neither  labor  nor  expense.  Nor  with 
all  his  preparation  did  he  feel  that  his  work  could  be 
satisfactory  unless  as  a  narrator  he  could  enter  fully 
into  the  atmosphere  of  the  times  he  described.  "  Faith- 
fulness to  the  truth  of  history,"  as  he  justly  observed, 
"involves  far  more  than  a  research,  however  patient 
and  scrupulous,  into  special  facts.  Such  facts  may 
be  detailed  with  the  most  minute  exactness,  and  still 


10  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

the  narrative,  taken  as  a  whole,  may  be  unmeaning 
or  untrue.  The  narrator  must  seek  to  imbue  himself 
with  the  life  and  spirit  of  the  time.  He  must  study 
events  in  their  bearings,  near  and  remote;  in  the 
character,  habits,  and  manners  of  those  who  took 
part  in  them.  He  must  himself  be,  as  it  were,  a 
sharer  or  spectator  of  the  men  he  describes." 

Two  other  observations  from  Mr.  Parkman's  pen 
are  so  apt  and  admirable  that  we  cannot  refrain  from 
quoting  them.  One  relates  to  historical  citation,  a 
matter  in  which  critics  are  apt  to  be  over-exacting, 
as  though  historians  ought  to  load  down  pages  with 
pedantic  notes,  the  usual  display  of  second-hand 
assistance,  and  not  be  trusted  at  all  upon  their  resp  fu- 
sible statements.  Observing  on  his  own  behalf  that 
his  citations  are  much  less  than  his  material,  most  of 
the  latter  being  of  a  collateral  and  illustrative  nature, 
"such,"  he  well  adds,  "is  necessarily  the  case,  where 
one  adhering  to  facts  tries  to  animate  them  with  the 
life  of  the  past. "  And,  again,  seeking  to  be  fair  and 
impartial  in  his  estimates  of  men  and  measures,  he 
challenged  the  descendants  of  those  who  thought  him 
otherwise  to  test  his  proofs.  "  As  extremists  on  each 
side,"  he  wrote  finally  at  the  close  of  his  labors, 
"  have  charged  me  with  favoring  the  other,  I  hope  I 
have  not  been  unfair  to  either." 

With  vicAvs  of  his  vocation  so  just  and  honorable, 
Mr.  Parkman,  slowly  of  necessity,  but  with  firm 
tenaciousness,  Avr ought  out  his  literary  plans.  His 
first  work,  "The  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac,"  in  two 
volumes,  was  published  in  1851 :  the  subject  being  a 
dramatic  one  of  war  and  of  conquest,  and  chosen  by 
himself  most  happily  for  the  portrayal  of  forest  life 
and  the  Indian  character.  It  was  not  until  January, 
1865,  that  his  next  volume  appeared,  on  "  Pioneers  o£ 


FRANCIS  PARKMAK  11 

France  in  the  New  World ; "  and  meanwhile  he  had 
made  an  unsuccessful  venture  with  a  work  of  pure 
fiction.  So  long  a  gap  in  his  historical  labors  he 
never  left  again;  for  by  this  time  he  had  accepted 
sickness  and  physical  trial  as  permanent  incidents  of 
his  career,  while  his  historical  plan  had  widened  into 
its  fullest  scope.  At  first  intending  to  limit  himself 
to  the  great  closing  struggle  for  supremacy  between 
France  and  Great  Britain,  he  had  decided  at  length 
to  cover  the  whole  field  of  French  colonization  in 
America.  Under  such  an  arrangement,  "Pontiac's 
Conspiracy  "  would  take  its  place  as  a  sequel  to  his 
works  written  later,  while  its  own  introductory  sketch 
served  as  the  base  of  more  extended  and  consecutive 
narratives  to  follow.  Other  volumes  were  accord- 
ingly under  way  when  "  Pioneers  of  France  "  appeared ; 
and  in  1867  he  published  "  Jesuits  in  North  America," 
a  thrilling  record  of  missionary  labors,  which  was 
followed  in  1869  by  "  La  Salle,  and  the  Discovery  of 
the  Great  West,"  a  recital  of  explorations  about  the 
upper  Mississippi.  "The  Old  Regime  in  Canada" 
came  out  in  1874,  treating  of  the  transition  period  of 
1653-1680;  and  to  this  succeeded,  in  1877,  "Count 
Frontenac,  and  New  France  under  Louis  XIV.,"  the 
story  of  the  bravest  warrior  and  viceroy  France  ever 
sent  to  this  continent.  These  works,  following  the 
earliest,  were  in  single  volumes,  each  taking  its  inde- 
pendent place  in  a  series  of  narratives  entitled  "  France 
and  England  in  the  New  World. "  By  this  time  the 
patient  scholar  had  reached  the  full  prime  of  life,  and 
time  admonished  him  to  economize  his  remaining 
strength  to  the  utmost.  He  interrupted  the  course 
of  description  sufficiently  to  make  sure  of  that  romantic 
period,  the  British  conquest  of  Canada,  which  had 
first  captivated  his  youthful  imagination.     "  Montcalm 


12  HISTORICAL  BRIEF S. 

and  Wolfe,"  a  work  of  two  volumes,  was  therefore 
his  next  undertaking;  this  he  finished  by  1884,  soon 
after  rounding  his  threescore  years ;  and  leaving  the 
climax  of  battle  upon  the  Plains  of  Abraham  for  a 
closing  scene,  he  now  turned  back  once  more  with 
his  veteran  pen  to  fill  the  intervening  gap.  In  1892 
two  more  volumes,  entitled  "The  Half-Century  of 
Confhct,"  and  embracing  the  period  1700-1748, 
preceded  "  Montcalm  and  Wolfe "  in  the  completed 
series.  Mr.  Parkman's  monumental  work,  in  spite 
of  intervening  obstacles  which  prolonged  its  execu- 
tion, was  now  finished,  with  the  same  conscientious, 
thorough,  and  painstaking  devotion  which  had  always 
characterized  him,  and  he  now  took  final  leave  of  his 
labors.  His  calculation  of  allotted  strength  liad  not 
been  wide  of  the  mark,  for  the  very  next  year  after 
laying  down  the  historical  pen  his  earthly  limit  was 
reached.  He  died  a  gentle  death  on  the  8th  of 
November,  1893. 

Mr.  Parkman's  peculiar  merits  as  a  historian  we 
have  already  indicated,  —  thoroughness  of  prepara- 
tion, a  painstaking  accuracy,  justness  in  balancing 
authorities,  scholarly  tastes  and  comprehension,  and 
the  constant  disposition  to  be  truthful  and  impartial, 
to  which  were  added  skill  and  an  artistic  grace  and 
dignity  in  composition.  His  style  Avas  crystal-clear 
and  melodious  as  a  mountain  brook,  which  flows 
obedient  to  easy  impulse,  setting  off  the  charms  of 
natural  scenery  by  its  own  exquisite  naturalness. 
The  aroma  of  the  woods  and  of  woodland  life  is  in  all 
his  books,  among  which,  perhaps,  "The  Conspiracy 
of  Pontiac  "  will  remain  the  favorite.  Here  and  con- 
stantly in  dealing  with  the  Indian,  with  the  primeval 
American  landscape  and  its  primeval  inhabitants,  his 
touch  is  masterly  and  unapproachable;  and  so,   too, 


FRANCIS  PARKMAN.  13 

in  describing  the  sympathetic  contact  of  France  with 
a  race  which  British  interference  doomed  to  destruc- 
tion. French  explorers,  French  missionaries  and 
warriors,  stand  out  lifelike  from  these  interesting 
narratives,  since  he  wrote  to  interest  and  not  merely 
to  instruct.  Generalization  and  the  broader  historical 
lessons  are  to  be  found  rather  in  the  pages  of  his 
preface,  as  Mr.  Parkman  wrote,  than  in  the  narra- 
tives themselves,  most  of  his  later  subjects  being,  in 
fact,  extended  ones  for  the  compass  of  the  book ;  and 
with  his  wealth  of  materials  he  kept  closely  to  the 
tale.  But  in  these  preliminary,  or  rather  final,  de- 
ductions may  be  found  pregnant  passages  of  force  and 
eloquence. 

A  life  so  symmetrical  in  its  literary  scope  and 
occupation,  and  so  minutely  adjusted  to  the  draw- 
backs of  ill-health,  could  hardly  have  projected  far 
into  the  active  concerns  of  his  age.  On  a  few  occa- 
sions only  Mr.  Parkman  was  tempted  to  discuss 
problems  of  the  day  in  the  magazines,  wdien  the  con- 
servatism of  his  temperament  became  manifest.  His 
clear  preference  was  for  literary  topics  and  subjects 
cognate  to  his  studies.  He  felt,  however,  and  felt 
deeply,  the  tremendous  tumult,  culminating  in  bloody 
strife,  which  went  on  without  his  domestic  cell ,  and 
the  preface  to  his  "Pioneers  of  France,"  a  volume 
published  just  before  that  fratricidal  conflict  ended, 
and  dedicated  to  young  kinsmen  "slain  in  battle," 
reads  like  a  solemn  requiem.  Somewhat  later,  after 
victory  for  freedom  and  the  Union  developed  evil 
tendencies,  his  mind  once  more  compared  the  regime 
of  earlier  centuries,  and  noted  those  vices  in  which 
democracy  and  autocracy  approach  one  another.  A 
home  atmosphere  made  his  studious  seclusion  redolent 
of  lifelong  friendships  and  attachments.     A  widower 


14  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

for  half  his  life,  with  two  daughters  who  have  married 
and  survived  him,  his  winters  were  usually  passed  in 
the  heart  of  his  native  Boston,  and  his  summers  in  a 
once  picturesque  suburb,  long  since  comprised  within 
the  same  civic  confines.  He  dedicated  his  various 
volumes  to  kinsmen  dear  to  him,  to  a  choice  friend  or 
two  who  had  lightened  his  studies  by  helpful  sym- 
pathy, to  his  college  class  of  1844,  and,  finally,  and 
for  the  last  time,  to  Harvard  College,  the  alma  mater 
under  whose  influence,  as  he  acknowledged,  his  life 
purpose  had  been  conceived. 

To  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  of  which 
he  was  vice-president  and  a  most  honored  member, 
Mr.  Parkman  gave  from  time  to  time  his  collections 
of  manuscript  material  used  in  the  preparation  of  his 
works,  which  formed,  when  completed,  some  seventy 
volumes,  mostly  in  folio.  Harvard  honored  him  with 
its  degree  of  LL.D.,  and  he  served  upon  its  Board 
of  Overseers,  and  more  lately  as  one  of  the  Corpora- 
tion Fellows.  But  his  immediate  interests  extended 
elsewhere  as  his  fame  increased.  In  recognition  of 
his  taste  for  gardening  he  was  chosen  president  of  the 
Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society,  besides  occupy- 
ing for  two  years  a  chair  in  the  Agricultural  Depart- 
ment of  his  own  University. 

When  in  1880  was  formed  in  Boston  the  St.  Botolph 
Club,  whose  especial  aim  was  to  bring  together  men 
of  talent  and  eminence  in  art,  literature,  and  the 
professions,  wealth  being  regarded  secondary,  Mr. 
Parkman  was  its  conspicuous  choice  for  president, 
and  for  six  years  he  filled  that  trust  with  marked  zeal 
and  fidelity;  and  after  declining  health  compelled 
him  to  retire,  he  still  stood  upon  its  list  as  vice-presi- 
dent. Faithful  in  these  earlier  years  to  its  interests, 
he  was  constantly  to  be  seen  at  its  Saturday  evening 


FRANCIS  PARKMAN,  15 

gatherings,  genial  and  approachable  to  all,  and  pro- 
moting its  hospitalities  by  as  cordial  a  solicitude  as 
though  he  were  host  in  his  own  private  parlors. 
Many  of  other  circles  in  life,  who  met  him  then  and 
there  for  the  first  and  only  times,  were  surprised  to 
find  him  in  appearance,  when  approaching  threescore, 
not  an  invalid  bent  with  years  and  sufferings,  deli- 
cate, with  pallid  face  furrowed  with  wrinkles,  but 
decidedly  elastic  in  step,  fresh  and  handsome  in 
appearance,  with  an  impressive  aspect  of  well-pre- 
served and  even  healthful  maturity.  His  height 
could  scarcely  have  been  an  inch  under  six  feet;  his 
whole  frame  was  compacted  and  even  sturdy-looking ; 
his  hair,  though  tinged  with  gray,  Avas  abundant, 
and  his  head  and  full  neck  were  firmly  set  upon  broad 
and  capable  shoulders.  He  showed  a  high  forehead, 
a  face  closely  shaven,  which  exposed  strong  and 
resolute  features,  a  chin  and  mouth  bespeaking  firm- 
ness and  persistency,  at  the  same  time  that  his  beam- 
ing eyes,  of  a  soft  brown  color,  were  full  of  kindly 
and  even  tender  expression.  In  his  whole  demeanor 
he  showed  dignity  and  an  innate  gentility  happily 
combined.  A  portrait  of  two  thirds  length,  painted 
at  this  period  and  an  excellent  likeness,  is  among  the 
ornaments  of  the  club  in  its  new  house ;  and  on  the 
evening  following  Mr.  Parkman's  funeral,  when 
the  members  gathered  for  a  memorial  meeting,  and 
this  oil  painting  in  its  appropriate  frame,  decked  Avith 
crape  and  laurel,  stood  in  the  picture  gallery  with  a 
full  light  thrown  upon  it,  it  truly  seemed,  while  one 
after  another  in  sombre  shadow  pronounced  a  tribute, 
that  the  gentle  and  graceful  figure  was  about  to  glide 
forward  from  the  canvas  to  give  a  parting  hand-grasp 
in  silent  and  sympathetic  benediction. 


HISTOEICAL  GEOUPING. 

Not  far  from  where  I  am  now  standing,  a  grateful 
city  lias  erected  a  stately  monument  to  its  soldiers 
and  sailors  who  died  in  the  late  Civil  War.  This 
monument  was  erected  about  fifteen  years  after  the 
war  was  over.  At  the  base  from  which  rises  its  pure 
granite  shaft,  may  be  seen  bas-reliefs  in  bronze,  one 
for  each  side,  which  depict  appropriate  scenes,  with 
portraits  to  recall  the  heroic  men  who  bore  part  in 
them.  One  of  these  metallic  studies  idealizes  the 
departure  of  a  Massachusetts  regiment,  in  1861,  for 
the  seat  of  war.  How  often  do  I  recall  that  scene, 
as  I  many  times  witnessed  it  in  impressible  youth! 
Most  fitly,  the  artist's  central  figure  is  that  of  our 
immortal  war  governor,  John  A.  Andrew.  But 
among  the  images  grouped  about  him,  that  of  the 
man  is  absent  who,  next  to  the  governor  himself, 
bore  the  chief  part  in  organizing  and  despatching  our 
State  troops,  and  whose  face  was  scarcely  less  familiar 
to  our  Massachusetts  soldiers,  whether  departing  or 
returning.  Others  historically  associated  with  such 
scenes  are  wanting;  while  among  the  embossed  like- 
nesses more  or  less  appropriate,  which  are  here  pre- 
served for  posterity,  one  is  that  of  a  distinguished 
citizen  who  in  1861  was  crying  down  war,  and  urg- 
ing that  Southern  States  be  permitted  to  secede  in 

Eead  before  the  American  Historical  Association,  at  Boston, 
May  23,  1887. 


HISTORICAL    GROUPING.  17 

peace;  another  likeness  recalls  a  son  honored  here 
indeed,  years  later,  but  who  through  this  whole 
period  of  fraternal  strife  resided  in  a  far  distant  State 
and  city.  I  do  not  bring  up  this  circumstance  for 
reproach,  but  because  it  fitly  introduces  and  illustrates 
the  point  to  which  I  wish  briefly  to  direct  your 
attention.  My  subject  is  Historical  Grouping,  or 
what,  perhaps,  I  might  better  style  Historical  Back- 
ground. Whatever  memorable  scenes  of  the  past  it 
may  be  the  function  of  historian  or  historical  painter 
to  recall,  he  should  delineate  with  scrupulous  fidelity 
to  truth  the  lesser  as  well  as  the  greater  surround- 
ings; his  canvas  should  group  those  together,  and 
only  those,  who  were  actually  related  to  the  event 
and  worked  out  in  unison  the  great  issue.  Two 
chief  considerations  enforce  this  duty;  (1)  That  in 
the  mad  zeal  of  our  modern  age  for  present  and 
future,  the  past  is  easily  overlaid  and  obliterated; 
(2)  That  while  Fame  takes  decent  care  of  her  chief 
hero,  of  the  actor  most  responsible,  she  easily  neglects 
the  subordinates,  however  indispensable  their  parts 
might  have  been.  "Set  me  down  as  I  am"  is  the 
common  appeal  of  patriots  of  every  rank  to  posterity 
and  the  impartial  historian ;  and  the  true  relation  to 
the  event  which  the  scholar  must  consider  is  not  that 
of  one  individual,  but  of  many,  in  the  nicely  graded 
proportion  of  foreground  and  background. 

The  Chief  Executive,  the  warlike  commander,  the 
great  personification  of  his  time,  him  we  follow  with 
the  eye ;  we  discuss  and  re-discuss  his  achievements ; 
we  analyze  his  traits,  over  and  over,  even  until  we 
obscure  them  by  our  own  ingenuity;  we  study  his 
individual  growth  from  infancy  up,  anxious  to  dis- 
cover in  a  single  brain,  if  we  may,  the  seed  which 
must  have  germinated  in  other  minds  and  dispersed 


18  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS, 

results  to  germinate  again  and  still  more  widely, 
before  the  perfect  flower  and  perfect  opportunity 
could  possibly  have  bloomed.  The  great  hero  of  the 
age  is  still,  as  ever,  the  man  most  responsible  for 
what  was  successfully  accomplished;  yet  what  hero 
ever  achieved  a  great  success,  except  by  happily 
combining  the  wisdom,  skill,  and  valor  of  others 
Avhose  ideas,  whose  lives  were  intertwined  with  his 
own,  and  by  bringing  this  whole  subordinate  force  to 
bear  properly  upon  the  occasion  ?  Let  us  look  more 
particularly  to  the  manifold  influences  and  counter 
influences  which  work  out  the  great  problems  of  an 
age  and  republican  system  like  our  own.  The  public 
movements  of  American  society  in  the  present  century 
are  not  accomplished  without  the  combined  force  of 
elements  more  or  less  hidden  from  the  casual  vision, 
which  in  a  large  degree  are  coequal.  The  scholar, 
the  recluse  philosopher,  the  poet,  the  orator,  the 
editor,  the  teacher,  the  legislator,  the  statesman, 
gives  each  an  impulse  and  direction  to  affairs  far 
greater,  in  normal  times,  than  the  professional  warrior. 
Nor  is  it  the  individual  mind  that  sways  American 
politics,  but  rather  the  majority  or  average  mind,  the 
mind  that  has  been  brought  by  toilsome  precept  and 
discipline  to  the  point  of  earnest  conviction.  History 
has  its  leaders  still;  but  the  leader  who  unites  the 
highest  expression  of  thought  and  action  rarely 
appears  in  the  modern  days;  our  foremost  adminis- 
trator is  apt  to  be  more  vigorous  than  original,  and 
in  this  country,  at  least,  we  look  no  longer  for  the 
autocrat,  the  warrior  chief,  who  plans  conquests  and 
drains  his  people  that  he  may  march  an  army  whither- 
soever he  will.  A  further  thought  rises  in  this  con- 
nection; namely,  that  the  reputation  once  achieved 
has  now  no  sure  bulwark  to  protect  it.     The  sacrifi- 


HISTORICAL    GROUPING.  19 

cial  days  are  over.  The  people  observe  no  longer  the 
calendar  of  their  demi-gods.  Ulysses  cannot  reckon 
upon  offices  of  tenderness,  when  he  is  gone,  from  his 
blameless  Telemachus.  So  great  and  so  constant 
becomes  the  pressure  and  counter  pressure  of  ideas 
in  our  modern  life,  that  civilization  seems  to  wear 
into  the  solid  land  itself,  like  some  turbulent  torrent, 
washing  away  at  one  bank  and  bringing  down  allu- 
vium at  another.  The  past,  with  its  traditions  and 
examples,  is  ignored;  not  that  we  mean  to  falsify, 
but  that  we  are  indifferent  to  it;  novelties  absorb  the 
present  attention;  the  son  cavils  at  the  faults  and 
limitations  of  the  father;  and  in  the  headlong  and 
incessant  push  and  jostle  of  men,  parties,  and  ideas, 
it  is  not  enough  for  fame  that  a  man  filled  well  the 
measure  of  his  own  age,  if  a  new  age  requires  new 
measures. 

Such  being  our  present  situation,  in  place  of  the 
few  ambitious  great,  we  find  the  scope  fast  enlarging 
for  the  many  men  and  tlieir  petty  and  manifold  ambi- 
tions. And  no  easier  or  cheaper  means  of  gratifying 
a  petty  ambition  can  be  found  than  in  clustering 
about  the  leaders  who  have  gained  recognition  and 
come  into  fashion,  buzzing  at  their  ears,  and  borrow- 
ing somewhat  of  the  lustre  and  prestige  of  good 
neighborhood.  Of  the  deserving  recipients  of  applause 
some  die  late,  some  early;  all  do  not  leave  their 
papers  sorted  and  ready  for  posterity  to  judge  of 
their  own  admitted  inspiration.  Here,  then,  is  the 
opportunity  for  the  parasite,  the  flatterer,  the 
eleventh-hour  convert,  indeed,  for  all  survivors  who 
can  grasp  the  key  of  the  situation  for  themselves  and 
their  friends,  to  work  seasonably  upon  the  platform 
and  into  the  conspicuous  background,  when  the  artist 
appears:  just  as  loiterers  elsewhere  insinuate   them- 


20  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

selves  into  a  group  when  tliey  see  the  camera  mountedo 
The  picture  is  taken  and  placed  on  exhibition  for  the 
admiration  of  posterity.  Who  are  not  friends,  who 
are  not  enthusiasts,  when  the  man,  the  cause,  has 
triumphed?  And  as  for  the  artist  whose  handicraft 
was  thus  employed,  why  should  he  be  less  susceptible 
to  the  kindness  of  benefactors  than  the  great  masters 
into  whose  immortal  paintings  of  saints  and  martyrs, 
and  of  the  Holy  Family  itself,  were  introduced  the 
portraits  of  their  own  patron  bishops  and  duchesses  ? 
Against  all  this  false  grouping  for  historical  effect, 
wherever  it  may  be  found,  this  sordid  commingling 
of  souls  noble  and  ignoble,  this  separation  of  the 
acknowledged  leader  from  associations  which  com- 
bined to  produce  his  great  action,  and  gave  him 
strength,  dignity,  and  sympathy  at  the  momentous 
opportunity,  I  invoke  the  justice,  the  scholarship, 
and  the  incorruptible  honor  of  the  historian.  Let 
him  take  his  impartial  stand  among  bygone  men  and 
events,  and,  so  far  as  in  him  lies,  reproduce  the  past 
as  it  was.  Let  him  extricate  reputations  from  the 
dust  of  oblivion  and  cunning  entanglements,  and 
award  posthumous  honors  anew  witliout  fear  or  favor. 
Let  him  observe  the  laws  of  perspective,  and  bring 
foreground  and  background  into  their  just  and  har- 
monious relation.  Let  him  distinguish  scrupulously 
between  the  recognition  which  follows  success  and 
that  rarer  sort  which  precedes  it  in  the  day  of  personal 
sacrifice.  And  in  order  to  do  all  this,  let  him  not 
trust  too  closely  to  epitaphs  placed  on  tombstones  of 
the  dead  by  the  immediate  survivors,  nor  to  effigies 
bronze  or  brazen;  for  much  depends  upon  the  bias 
and  worldly  hopes  of  the  men  who  set  them  in  posi- 
tion. To  rescue  history  from  the  age  most  dangerous 
because  most  likely  to  pervert  its  truth,  and  yet  at  the 


HISTORICAL    GROUPING.  21 

same  time  the  age  most  plausible  in  its  expression  — 
that  age,  I  mean,  which  next  succeeds  the  event 
—  should  command  one's  diligent  effort.  For  every 
epoch  is  best  read  and  explained  by  its  own  light,  by 
its  own  contemporaneous  record;  and  every  other 
record  ought  to  be  held  but  secondary  and  subservient 
in  comparison  by  the  student  who  searches  for  the 
real  truth  of  events.  This  last  observation  may  be 
thought  a  trite  one ;  but  I  am  well  convinced  that  it 
is  at  the  very  foundation  of  historical  study  and 
criticism,  such  as  a  society  like  ours  ought  to  practise 
and  inculcate. 


SPIRIT  OF  EESEAECH. 

What,  let  us  ask,  is  history  ?  And  by  what  image 
may  we  present  to  the  mind  of  the  student  a  proper 
conception  of  that  department  of  study?  Emerson, 
our  American  Plato,  pictures  as  a  vast  sea  the  uni- 
versal mind  to  which  all  other  minds  have  access. 
"Of  the  works  of  this  mind,"  he  adds,  "history  is 
the  record."  That  idea  is  a  leading  one  of  this  phi- 
losopher. Man  he  considers  the  encyclopaedia,  the 
epitome  of  facts;  the  thought,  he  observes,  is  always 
prior  to  the  fact,  and  is  wrought  out  in  human 
action. 

Such  a  conception  may  suit  the  philosophic  mind; 
it  may  commend  itself  to  men  of  thought,  as  con- 
trasted with  men  of  action.  But  it  seems  to  me  too 
vast  if  not  too  vague  a  definition  for  an  appropriate 
basis  to  historical  investigation.  No  one  can  project 
history  upon  such  a  plan,  except  man's  Maker,  the 
Universal  Mind  itself.  Thought  itself  may  precede 
the  fact,  but  the  two  do  not  coincide  nor  form  a  per- 
fect sequence.  The  empire  of  thought  differs  greatly 
from  that  of  personal  action;  we  each  live  but  one 
life,  while  we  may  propose  a  hundred.  The  works 
of  the  mind  involve  all  knowledge,  all  reasoning,  all 
experience.  Nor  can  we  with  accuracy  picture  the 
human  mind  as  a  tranquil  sea  tossing  only  in  its  own 

Read  before  the  American  Historical  Association,  at  Washington, 
December  31,  1889. 


SPIRIT  OF  RESEARCH,  23 

agitations,  but  rather  as  an  onward  force  working 
through  strong  physical  barriers.  History,  in  truth, 
is  the  record  of  human  thought  in  active  motion,  of 
thought  which  is  wrought  out  into  action,  of  events 
in  their  real  and  recorded  sequence.  The  individual 
acts  upon  his  external  surroundings ;  those  surround- 
ings react  upon  him  and  upon  his  fellows.  Men, 
tribes,  nations,  thus  acting,  mould  one  another's  career 
and  are  moulded  in  return.  History  leaves  the  whole 
boundless  empire  of  unfettered  mental  philosophy,  of 
fiction,  of  imagination.  It  deals  Avith  facts ;  it  notes 
and  narrates  what  has  actually  transpired  and  by 
whose  agency ;  and  it  draws  where  it  may  the  moral. 
History,  in  short,  is  the  record  of  consecutive  events, 
—  of  consecutive  public  events. 

This  broad  truth  should  be  kept  in  view,  that  the 
human  mind  (under  which  term  we  comprise  volition, 
and  not  the  intellectual  process  alone),  that  the  indi- 
vidual character  acts  upon  the  circumstances  sur- 
rounding it,  upon  external  nature,  upon  external 
fellow-beings.  These  persons  and  things  external 
not  only  modify  and  influence  one's  attempted  action, 
but  modify  his  thought  and  feeling ;  they  react  upon 
him,  form  and  influence  his  character,  his  destiny. 
This  makes  human  history,  and  it  makes  the  forecast 
of  that  history  forever  uncertain. 

The  picture,  then,  that  we  should  prefer  to  present 
to  the  imagination  is  not  of  one  vast  universal  mind, 
calmly  germinating,  fermenting,  conceiving;  not  of 
one  mind  at  equilibrium,  having  various  inlets  —  but 
of  a  torrent  in  motion.  They  did  wisely  and  naturally 
who  mapped  out  for  us  a  stream  of  history  flowing 
onward,  and  widening  and  branching  in  its  flow. 
Downward  and  onward,  this  impetuous  torrent  of 
human  life   obeys   its   own   law  of   gravitation.     It 


24  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

advances  like  a  river,  with  its  feeders  or  its  deltas; 
or  like  the  march  of  an  immense  army,  now  re-en- 
forced, now  dividing  into  columns,  now  reuniting,  — 
but  going  forever  on  and  never  backward.  Let  us 
reject,  therefore,  the  idea  of  an  a  priori  history  and 
whatever  conception  conjures  up  a  human  mind  plan- 
ning history  in  advance  and  then  executing  it. 
Buckle  was  oppressed  to  death  by  the  burden  of  such 
an  idea  as  that  of  reducing  the  whole  history  of  this 
world's  civilization  to  a  law  of  natural  selection. 
There  is  no  rigid  scientific  development  to  the  human 
race.  The  particle  of  divine  essence  which  is  in 
man  formulates,  creates,  compels  to  its  will,  changes 
because  of  its  desire  for  change ;  though,  after  all,  it 
bends  to  the  laws  of  natural  necessity.  The  man  of 
genius  may  invent;  he  may  construct  a  wonderful 
motive-engine  which  propels  by  steam  or  electricity ; 
yet  he  may  be  battered  to  pieces  by  this  same  machine, 
if  ignorant  or  careless  of  some  latent  physical  cause. 
We  speak,  too,  of  prophecy;  but  prophecy  is  vague. 
" Westward, "  says  Bishop  Berkeley,  "the  course  of 
empire  takes  its  way;"  and  he  looked  through  the 
vista  of  a  century.  But  who,  of  all  our  statesmen 
and  philanthropists  who  flourished  forty  years  ago,  — 
and  wise  and  great,  indeed,  were  many  of  them,  —  fore- 
told with  accuracy  how  and  through  what  agencies  the 
problem  of  American  slavery,  which  they  so  earnestly 
discussed,  would  reach  its  historical  solution  ? 

To  take,  then,  our  simile  of  the  onward  torrent 
from  distant  sources,  or  the  army  advancing  from 
afar:  observe  how  absorbed  was  ancient  histor}^  with 
the  larger  streams  fed  by  hidden  fountains ;  how  its 
narrative  was  confined  to  the  great  leaders  of  thou- 
sands and  tens  of  thousands.  But  in  modern  history 
each  individual  has  his  relative  place ;  and  looking  as 


SPIRIT  OF  RESEARCH.  25 

through  a  microscope  we  see  an  intricate  network  of 
rills  from  which  the  full  stream  is  supplied.  In  this 
consists  the  difference  between  ancient  and  modern 
life,  ancient  and  modern  history.  Simplicity  is  the 
characteristic  of  the  primitive  age;  complexity  is 
that  of  our  present  civilized  and  widely  multiplied 
society.  The  ancient  force  was  the  force  of  the  pre- 
eminent leader,  —  of  the  king,  the  warrior  chief ;  but 
the  modern  force  is  that  rather  of  combined  mankind, 
—of  the  majority.  Individuals  were  formerly  absorbed 
under  the  domination  of  a  single  controlling  will,  but 
now  they  are  blended  or  subdued  by  the  co-operation 
of  wills,  among  which  the  greatest  or  the  pre-eminent 
is  hard  to  discover.  The  course  of  history  all  the 
while  is  consecutive,  knowing  no  cessation.  There 
is  a  present,  a  past,  and  a  future;  but  the  present 
soon  becomes  the  past,  the  future  takes  its  turn  as 
the  present.  And,  after  all,  the  only  clear  law  of 
history  is  that  of  motion  incessantly  onward. 

As  students  of  history,  we  seek  next  a  subject  and 
a  point  of  view.  Look,  then,  upon  this  vast  chart  of 
the  Avorld's  progress.  Retrace  its  course,  if  you  will, 
and  choose  where  you  shall  explore.  Do  not  choose 
at  random,  but  with  this  great  universal  record  to 
guide  you  as  a  chart;  as  a  chart  capable,  indeed,  of 
correction,  but  in  the  main  correct  enough  to  serve 
the  navigator.  Having  thus  chosen,  circumscribe 
your  work:  confine  your  exploration  to  a  particular 
country,  to  a  particular  period,  say  of  twenty,  thirty, 
or  a  hundred  years ;  let  your  scrutiny  be  close,  and 
discover  what  you  may  to  render  the  great  chart 
fuller  and  more  accurate  than  hitherto.  If  universal 
history  be  your  subject,  you  will  not  go  far  beyond 
tracing  the  bold  headlands,  while  on  the  other  hand, 
with  a  small  compass  of  Avork,  you  may  contribute 


26  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

much  information  of  genuine  value  to  your  age. 
Explore  from  some  starting-point;  you  can  descend 
upon  it  like  a  hawk.  You  may  require  some  time 
to  study  its  vicinity,  to  look  back  and  consider  what 
brought  the  stream  to  this  point.  But  your  main 
investigation  will  be  not  by  exploring  to  a  source, 
but  by  following  the  stream  in  its  onward  and 
downward  current.  In  the  present  age  one  must 
be  ignorant  of  much  if  he  would  be  proficient  in 
something. 

Our  chart  of  history  opens  like  an  atlas ;  it  presents 
page  after  page  of  equal  size,  but  with  a  lessening 
area  for  the  sake  of  an  increasing  scale.  One  page 
exhibits  a  hemisphere,  another  a  continent,  another 
a  nation;  others,  in  turn,  the  state,  the  county,  the 
municipal  unit.  From  a  world  we  may  thus  reduce 
the  focus,  until  we  have  mapped  within  the  same 
spaces  a  town  or  city,  or  even  a  single  house ;  from  a 
population  of  millions  we  may  come  down  to  a  tribe, 
a  family,  or  even  (as  in  a  biography)  to  a  single  indi- 
vidual, and  we  retrace  the  human  course  accordingly. 
Or  we  may  trace  backwards,  as  the  genealogist  does, 
in  an  order  reverse  to  biography  or  general  history. 
As  we  have  projected,  so  we  work,  we  investigate. 
In  such  an  atlas  as  I  am  describing,  how  different 
appear  both  civil  and  physical  configurations  at 
different  epochs.  Compare,  for  instance,  a  map  of 
the  United  States  of  our  latest  date  with  earlier  ones 
in  succession  from  1787.  Not  only  in  national  names 
and  boundaries  do  they  differ,  not  only  in  the  obscure 
or  erroneous  delineation  of  lakes  and  rivers  in  unex- 
plored regions,  but  in  that  dotting  of  towns  and 
cities,  that  marking  of  county  divisions,  which  posi- 
tively indicates  the  advance  of  a  settled  population 
and  settled  State  governments.     Maps   of  different 


SPIRIT  OF  RESEARCH.  27 

epochs  like  these,  where   they  exist,   are  part  of  a 
permanent  historical  record. 

Involved  in  the  study  of  any  civilization  is  the 
study  of  its  religion,  of  its  literature,  of  its  political 
and  military  movements,  of  the  appliances  of  science, 
of  the  changes  and  development  of  trade,  commerce, 
and  industries.  Each  of  these  influences  may  be 
traced  apart,  or  their  combined  influence  may  be 
shown  upon  the  course  of  some  great  people.  In 
this  present  enlightened  age,  nations  intersect  one 
another  more  and  more  in  their  interests,  and  you 
may  feel  the  pulse  of  the  whole  civilized  world 
through  the  daily  press.  How  different  the  task  of 
preparing  such  a  history  as  the  nineteenth  century 
requires,  from  that  of  ancient  Athens,  of  China,  of 
mediaeval  Britain,  of  early  America.  But  in  all  tasks 
unity  and  selection  should  be  the  aim,  and  above  all 
circumscription.  One  must  measure  out  his  work 
with  exactness,  make  careful  estimates,  and  work  the 
huge  materials  into  place,  besides  using  his  pencil 
with  the  dignity  and  grace  of  an  artist.  In  a  word, 
he  should  be  an  architect.  It  is  because  of  this  union 
of  the  ideal  and  practical  that  Michael  Angelo  deserves 
the  first  place  among  men  distinguished  in  the  fine 
arts.  And  for  this  reason,  too,  we  may  well  rank 
Gibbon  as  the  foremost  among  historians ;  as  greater, 
indeed,  than  Thucydides,  Sallust,  or  any  other  of 
those  classical  writers  who  have  so  long  been  held  up 
for  modern  reverence.  And  this  is  because,  with 
skill  equally  or  nearly  as  great  as  theirs,  he  conceived 
and  wrought  out  a  task  far  more  difficult.  In  his- 
torical narrative  the  greatest  triumph  consists  in 
tracing  out  and  delineating  with  color  and  accuracy  a 
variety  of  intricate  influences  which  contribute  to 
the  main  result.     And  who  has  done  this  so  well  as 


28  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

the  author  of  the  "Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman 
Empire,"  that  greatest  of  all  historical  themes,  that 
most  impressive  and  momentous  of  all  human  events  ? 
See  the  hand  of  the  master  unfolding  the  long  train 
of  emperors  and  potentates ;  painting  the  revolt  and 
irruption  of  distant  nations,  of  remote  tribes ;  gather- 
ing upon  his  canvas  the  Greeks,  the  Scythians,  the 
Arabs,  Mohammed  and  his  followers,  the  fathers  of 
the  Christian  Church,  the  Goths  and  northern  barba- 
rians, who  were  destined  to  shape  the  civilization  of 
modern  Europe;  leading  his  readers  with  stately 
tread  through  the  whole  grand  pathway  down  which 
the  highest  type  of  a  pagan  civilization  sank  slowly 
into  the  shades  and  dissolution  of  the  dark  ages.  I 
will  not  deny  that  Gibbon  had  faults  as  a  historian ; 
that  his  stately  pomp  might  become  wearisome,  that 
he  partook  somewhat  of  the  French  sensuousness  and 
scepticism  which  surrounded  him  as  he  labored. 
But  of  his  profound  scholarship  and  artistic  skill 
there  can  be  no  question.  Contrast  with  a  task  like 
his  the  simple  narrative  of  some  brief  strife  under  a 
few  heroes  or  a  single  one,  —  like  the  history  of  the 
Peloponnesian  or  Jugurthine  war,  or  like  that  of  the 
Cortes  invasion  of  Mexico  which  our  own  Prescott 
has  so  admirably  described,  —  and  see  how  immense  is 
the  difference.  Yet  I  would  not  be  understood  to 
disparage  these  other  writers  with  simpler  subjects. 
They  have  instructed  and  interested  posterity  and 
their  own  times ;  their  fame  is  deservedly  lasting ; 
there  is  room  in  historical  literature  for  them  and  for 
all.  And  our  Anglo-Saxon  appears  to  be,  of  all  his- 
torical explorers,  the  best  adapted  to  portray  the 
manners  and  events  of  foreign  nations  and  distant 
times.  Thucydides  and  Xenophon  wrote  each  of  his 
own  country  alone ;  and  so  did  Sallust,  Livy,  Tacitus. 


SPIRIT  OF  RESEARCH.  29 

But  Gibbon  perfected  himself  in  a  foreign  literature 
and  tongue  so  as  to  write  of  other  lands;  and  so, 
too,   did  our  Prescott  and  Motley. 

Here  let  us  observe  how  much  easier  it  is  to  be 
graphic,  to  interest  and  attract  the  reader,  when  one's 
story  has  simple  unity  and  relates  to  personal  exploit. 
Biography,  or  the  study  of  individual  leaders,  is  at 
the  foundation  of  the  narratives  which  are  most 
widely  read  and  most  popular;  in  the  Bible,  for 
instance,  in  Homer,  in  the  wars  of  Alexander,  Caesar, 
or  Napoleon.  Biography  excites  interest  because  it 
develops,  as  in  the  reader's  own  experience,  the 
growth  of  a  certain  individual  life  to  which  all  other 
lives  bear  but  an  incidental  relation;  and  for  this 
reason,  too,  biography  is  partial.  The  modern  tem- 
perament, however,  leads  us  to  investigate,  besides, 
the  growth  of  the  people  who  were  ruled,  the  devel- 
opment of  their  laws,  manners,  customs,  and  institu- 
tions. In  either  case  the  interest  that  moves  the 
reader  is  human.  That  military  and  political  course 
of  a  community  with  which  history  is  chiefly  engrossed 
moves  far  differently,  to  be  sure,  under  an  absolute 
monarch  than  in  a  democracy;  in  the  former  case 
foibles  and  caprice  .are  those  of  a  person,  in  the  latter 
they  are  those  of  a  whole  people.  Yet  we  observe 
in  all  but  the  ruder  ag^es  of  mankind  the  refining: 
influence  upon  rulers  which  is  exerted  by  philosophy, 
by  religion,  literature,  and  the  arts.  Note  this,  for 
example,  under  the  reign  of  Solomon,  of  Pericles,  of 
Alexander,  of  Constantine;  and  yet  it  is  a  lasting 
regret  to  posterity  that  out  of  epochs  like  theirs  so 
little  is  left  on  record  concerning  the  daily  lives  and 
habits  of  the  people  they  governed.  That  must  be 
a  rigid  tyranny,  indeed,  whose  government  has  not 
recognized  to  some  extent  the  strong  though  insen- 


30  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

sible  force  of  popular  customs.  Custom  constantly 
crystallizes  into  laws,  which  the  legislature,  the 
court,  or  the  monarch  stamps  with  authority;  and 
thus  are  local  institutions  pruned  and  trained  like  the 
grape-vine  on  a  trellis.  We  find  in  the  most  primi- 
tive society  wills  and  the  transmission  of  property 
recognized;  buying  and  selling;  trade  and  commerce 
(whence  come  revenue  and  personal  prosperity); 
marriage  and  the  seclusion,  greater  or  less,  of  the 
family  circle.  How  seldom  has  the  reader  associated 
all  these  with  the  wealth  of  Solomon  and  the  Queen 
of  Sheba,  with  the  vicissitudes  of  Croesus,  the  volup- 
tuous pleasures  of  Xerxes,  Cleopatra,  or  the  later 
Caesars ;  and  yet  it  is  certain  that  unless  the  subjects 
of  monarchs  like  these  had  pursued  their  private 
business  successfully,  amassed  fortunes  of  their  own, 
brought  up  families  and  increased  in  numbers,  the 
monarch  could  not  have  been  arrayed  with  such 
luxury;  for  royal  revenues  come  from  taxation,  and 
the  richest  kings  and  nobles  take  but  a  percentage 
from  the  general  wealth.  The  customs  of  one  nation 
are  borrowed  by  others;  Moses,  Lycurgus,  Solon, 
among  the  great  lawgivers,  framed  codes  each  for  his 
own  people  after  observing  the  institutions  of  other 
and  older  countries,  and  considering  how  best  to 
adapt  them.  Government  has  rightly  been  likened 
to  a  coat  which  is  cut  differently  to  fit  each  figure, 
each  nation ;  and,  more  than  this,  the  garb  itself  may 
differ  in  pattern,  since  the  object  is  to  clothe  different 
communities  appropriately  to  the  tastes  and  habits  of 
each.  We  shall  continue  to  regret,  then,  that  the 
ancient  writers  have  left  us  so  little  real  illustration 
concerning  the  habits  of  these  earlier  peoples,  —  how 
they  worked  and  sported,  and  what  was  their  inter- 
course  and   mode   of   life.     Research  in  archaeology 


SPIRIT  OF  RESEARCH.  31 

may  yet  supply  such  information  in  a  measure ;  and 
of  the  institutions,  the  embodied  customs,  we  have, 
fortunately,  some  important  remains.  No  contribu- 
tion survives,  more  valuable  to  this  end,  than  the 
books  of  Roman  jurisprudence  which  were  compiled 
under  Justinian.  Though  one  of  the  lesser  rulers  of 
that  once  illustrious  empire,  he  has  left  a  fame  for 
modern  times  more  conspicuous  than  that  of  Julius 
or  Augustus  Csesar;  and  this  is  because  he  brought 
into  permanent  and  enduring  form  for  the  guidance 
and  instruction  of  all  succeeding  ages  the  wisest 
laws,  the  best  epitome  of  human  experience,  the 
broadest  embodiment  of  customs,  which  ever  regu- 
lated ancient  society  in  the  mutual  dealings  of  man 
and  man. 

As  for  the  progress  of  our  modern  society  which 
emerges  from  the  mediaeval  age  succeeding  the  Roman 
collapse,  its  advance  in  knowledge  and  the  arts,  in 
the  successive  changes  of  manners  and  pursuits,  there 
is  much  yet  to  be  gathered  and  exposed  to  vicAv  for 
illustration;  though  with  respect  to  England  we  owe 
much  to  Macaulay  for  setting  an  example  of  investi- 
gation upon  that  broader  line  which  Niebuhr  and 
others  of  his  school  had  initiated  for  Roman  history. 
And  Macaulay  achieved  the  additional  triumph  of 
making  such  investigation  attractive.  Statutes  and 
judicial  reports  (to  quote  Daniel  Webster)  are  over- 
flowing fountains  of  knowledge  respecting  the  progress 
of  Anglo-Saxon  society,  from  feudalism  down  to  the 
full  splendor  of  the  commercial  age.  And  from  the 
modern  invention  of  printing,  let  us  add,  and  particu- 
larly since  the  growth  and  development  of  the  modern 
press,  we  find  (with  all  the  faults  of  fecundity  and 
falli])ility  which  are  peculiar  to  journalism)  a  picture 
of  the  world's  daily  life  set  forth  which  far  surpasses 


32  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

in  its  vivid  and  continuous  detail  any  collection 
of  ancient  records.  Our  modern  newspaper  may 
pander  for  the  sake  of  gain ;  it  may  avow  no  higher 
aim  in  affairs  than  to  please  a  paying  constituency; 
and  yet,  for  better  or  worse,  it  wields  and  will  con- 
tinue to  wield  an  immense  power.  The  reporter  may 
be  brazen-faced,  inclined  to  scandalous  gossip  and 
ribaldry;  the  news  may  be  spread  forth  disjointed, 
founded  on  false  rumor,  requiring  correction;  edito- 
rial comments  may  be  wilfully  partisan,  or  thundered 
from  the  Olympus  height  of  a  safe  circulation ;  but, 
even  at  its  worst,  so  long  as  it  is  duly  curbed  by  the 
laws  of  libel  so  essential  for  the  citizens'  protection, 
what  with  advertisements,  business  news,  the  discus- 
sion of  current  topics,  the  description  of  passing 
events  and  the  transient  impression  made  by  them,  our 
newspaper  holds  the  mirror  up  to  modern  society; 
while  at  its  best,  journalism  sits  in  her  chariot,  pencil 
in  hand,  like  that  marble  muse  herself  in  our  national 
capitol,  over  the  timepiece  #f  the  age.  The  ncAVS- 
paper's  truest  revelation  is  that  unconscious  one  of 
the  passions  and  prejudice  of  the  times,  and  of  that 
cast  of  popular  thought  under  Avhich  events  were 
born ;  it  preserves  imperishable  the  fashion  prevailing, 
for  posterity  to  look  upon  with  reverence  or  a  smile. 
But  in  the  present  age  the  journalist  should  beware 
how  he  presents  his  columns  to  bear  the  double  weight 
of  universal  advertiser  and  universal  purveyor  of 
knowledge,  lest  he  make  a  chaos  of  the  whole.  As 
in  the  former  centuries  records  were  scanty,  so  in  the 
century  to  come  they  will  be  found  superabundant, 
unless  fire  or  deluge  diminish  them.  Pregnant  facts, 
such  as  in  the  past  we  search  for  in  vain,  lie  buried, 
under  prevalent  methods,  in  bushel-heaps  of  worth- 
less assertion.     To  know  tlie  old  era,  you  must  search 


SPIRIT   OF  RESEARCH,  33 

with  a  lantern;    to   know  the  new  era,   you   must 
winnoAV. 

Research  is  a  fitting  word  to  apply  in  historical 
studies ;  for  by  this  word  we  import  that  one  is  not 
content  to  skim  the  surface  of  past  events,  but  prefers 
to  probe,  to  investigate,  to  turn  the  soil  for  himself. 
It  is  original  exploration  which  makes  such  studies 
attractive  and  stimulating.  We  walk  the  streets  of 
buried  cities  and  roam  through  the  deserted  houses, 
once  instinct  with  life,  piercing  the  lava  crust  of 
careless  centuries;  we  place  our  hearts  and  minds, 
richer  by  accumulated  experience,  close  to  the  pas- 
sions and  intellects  of  an  earlier  age ;  and  we  listen 
to  the  heart-beat  of  a  race  of  mankind  who  reached 
forward,  as  our  own  race  is  reaching  and  as  all  races 
reach  in  turn,  to  catch  the  omens  of  a  far  off  destiny. 
The  grand  results  and  the  grand  lessons  of  human 
life  are  ours  in  the  retrospect,  and  in  the  retrospect 
alone.  And  while  retracing  thus  the  footprints  of 
the  past,  we  shall  do, well  if  Ave  deduce  the  right 
moral ;  if  we  judge  of  human  actions  dispassionately 
and  as  befits  scholars  of  riper  times  and  a  broader 
revelation;  if  Ave  keep  under  due  constraint  that 
laudable  but  dangerous  passion  for  ncAV  discovery,  so 
as  neither  to  re\'ive  buried  calumnies  nor  to  Aveigh 
evidence  Avith  a  perverted  bias  to  noA^elty.  Let  our 
judgment  give  full  force  to  the  presumption  that  the 
long-settled  opinion  is  the  true  one,  and  let  our  spirit 
of  research  be  imbued  at  all  times  Avith  the  fearless 
purpose  to  knoAV  and  to  promulgate  the  truth. 


HISTORICAL  INDUSTRIES. 

Historians  are  sometimes  said  to  be  a  long-lived 
race.  To  historical  students,  at  all  events,  this  is  a 
comfortable  theory.  Recent  examples  of  a  productive 
old  age,  such  as  Ranke  so  long  supplied,  and  our  own 
illustrious  George  Bancroft,  may  have  lent  strong 
force  to  the  supposition.  History  herself,  no  doubt, 
is  a  long-winded  muse,  and  demands  of  each  votary 
the  power  of  continuance.  But  I  doubt  whether  sta- 
tistics would  bear  out  strongly  this  theory  of  a  long- 
lived  race.  Among  modern  historians,  well-known, 
who  have  died  a  natural  death,  neither  Niebuhr, 
Gibbon,  Macaulay,  nor  Hildreth  reached  his  sixtieth 
year ;  both  Prescott  and  Motley  died  at  about  sixty- 
three.  ^  On  the  other  hand,  to  take  poets  alone  whom 
many  of  us  may  have  seen  in  the  flesh,  both  Long- 
fellow and  Lowell  passed,  well  preserved,  the  bounds 
of  threescore  years  and  ten ;  while  Bryant,  Whittier, 
and  Holmes,  the  last  of  whom  still  vigorously  sur- 
vives, enjoyed  life  much  beyond  fourscore;  and  of 
English  composers  the  most  famous,  both  Tennyson 
and  Browning  mellowed  long  before  they  dropped. 

Undoubtedly,  however,  steady  and  systematic  brain- 
work  without  brain  worry,  conduces  to  health  and 

Read  before  the  American  Historical  Association,  at  Chicago, 
July  11,  1893. 

1  Francis  Parkman  has  recently  died  at  the  age  of  seventy,  longer 
spared  for  his  work,  than  any  of  those  above  mentioned. 


HISTORICAL  INDUSTRIES.  35 

long  life,  whatever  be  the  special  occupation;  and 
who  may  better  claim  that  precious  condition  of  mind 
than  the  average  historian  ?  For  of  all  literary  pur- 
suits none  on  the  whole  appears  so  naturally  allied  to 
competent  means  and  good  family.  Public  office  and 
influence  —  the  making  of  history  —  have  belonged 
in  most  epochs  before  our  own  to  the  aristocracy, 
superior  station  being  usually  linked  in  the  world's 
experience  to  wealth ;  and  it  is  the  scions  and  kindred 
of  those  who  have  been  actors  and  associates  in  events, 
if  not  the  actors  and  associates  themselves,  whose 
pens  describe  past  exploits  most  readily.  These  have 
gained  the  readiest  access  for  their  studies  to  the 
public  archives,  —  ransacking,  moreover,  that  private 
correspondence  of  illustrious  leaders  defunct,  which 
family  pride  guards  so  jealously;  and  with  mingled 
urbanity  and  scholarship  they  maintain  the  polish  of 
easy  intercourse  in  the  courtly  circles  of  their  own 
times.  One  ought  to  be  a  man  of  letters  and  liberal 
training  for  such  a  life,  a  close  student,  and  yet,  in 
some  sense,  a  person  of  affairs.  It  costs  long  leisure, 
and  money  too,  to  collect  materials  properly,  while 
the  actual  composition  proceeds  in  comparison  but 
slowly.  Nor  are  the  royalties  from  historical  writ- 
ings, however  successful  and  popular,  likely  to 
remunerate  one  greatly,  considering  his  aggregate 
outlay;  but  rather  than  in  any  enhanced  pecuniary 
ease,  his  reward  must  be  looked  for  in  the  distin- 
guished comradeship  of  the  dead  and  of  the  living  — 
in  the  satisfaction  that  he  has  performed  exalted  labors 
faithfully  for  the  good  of  his  fellow-men,  and  found 
them  in  his  own  day  fairly  appreciated.  Happy  the 
historian,  withal,  whom  fame  or  early  promise  has 
helped  into  some  collateral  and  congenial  employment 
of  indirect  advantage  to  his  task. 


36  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

Calmness  and  constancy  of  purpose  carry  us  on 
steadily  in  work  of  this  character,  with  powers  of 
mind  that  strengthen  by  habitual  exercise.  It  is  not 
brilliancy  of  assault,  it  is  not  the  pompous  announce- 
ment of  a  narrative  purpose,  that  determines  the 
historian ;  but  rather  silent  concentration  and  perse- 
verance. The  story  one  begins  will  never  be  thor- 
oughly finished  while  the  world  stands ;  and  on  the 
one  hand  is  the  temptation  of  preparing  with  too 
much  elaboration  or  fastidiousness  to  narrate  rapidly 
enough,  and  on  the  other  of  trying  to  tell  more  than 
the  circumscribed  limits  of  preparation  and  of  per- 
sonal capacity  will  permit.  Men  who  are  free  from 
financial  anxieties  will  be  tempted  aside  from  the 
incessant  laborious  work  by  the  seductions  of  pleasure. 
Thus  Prescott,  the  blind  historian,  with  excuses  much 
stronger  than  Milton  ever  had  for  social  ease  and 
inaction,  found  himself  compelled  to  overcome  his 
temptations  to  sloth  by  placing  himself  habitually 
under  penal  bonds  to  his  secretary  to  prepare  so  many 
pages  by  a  given  time. 

More,  however,  than  the  gift  of  time  and  income 
the  world  will  scarcely  look  for  in  a  literary  man. 
It  is  the  publisher,  rather,  who  projects  encyclopedias 
and  huge  reservoirs  of  useful  information,  and  who 
embarks  large  money  capital  in  the  enterprise.  A 
few  celebrated  authors,  to  be  sure,  have  figured,  some 
in  a  dormant  sense,  as  publishers  of  their  own  works ; 
like  Richardson,  the  English  novelist,  for  instance, 
the  Chambers  brothers,  and,  most  disastrously  for 
himself,  Sir  Walter  Scott.  Many  literary  men  of 
means  own  their  plates,  while  putting  firms  forward 
to  print  and  publish  for  them  notwithstanding. 

But  it  is  reserved,  I  believe,  to  America,  and  to 
the   present   age,    to  furnish  to  the  world  the  first 


HISTORICAL  INDUSTRIES.  37 

unique  example  of  bookseller,  book  collector,  histo- 
rian, and  publisher,  all  combined  in  one,  whose  for- 
tune is  devoted  to  the  fulfilment  of  a  colossal  pioneer 
research.  We  must  count,  I  apprehend,  the  living 
historian  of  "The  Pacific  States"  among  the  wealthy 
benefactors  of  our  higher  learning;  for  that  prolific 
brood  of  brown  volumes  such  as  no  other  historian 
from  Herodotus  down  ever  fathered  for  his  own,  can 
hardly  have  repaid  their  immense  cost  and  labor  of 
preparation,  even  with  the  ultimate  sale  added  of  the 
famous  library  whose  precious  contents  gave  them 
substance. 

Mr.  Bancroft's  "Literary  Industries,"  a  stimulating 
and  well-written  book,  recounts  fully  the  methods  he 
employed,  with  a  corps  of  literary  writers  under  his 
personal  direction,  in  ransacking  the  contents  of  that 
huge  library,  since  offered  for  sale,  to  furnish  forth 
his  own  compendious  treatises  upon  the  archseology, 
history,  and  ethnology  of  our  Pacific  Coast,  hitherto 
but  little  illustrated  by  its  latest  race  of  conquerors. 
And  he  felicitates  himself  that  an  enterprise,  other- 
wise beyond  any  one  man's  power  of  execution,  was 
brought  by  his  OAvn  organized  efforts  within  the  com- 
pass of  some  thirty  years. 

I  will  not  undertake  any  direct  criticism  of  such 
comprehensive  methods  as  his,  nor  seek  to  disparage 
labors  so  generously  and  withal  so  successfully 
rounded  out  to  a  close.  But  this  present  age  runs 
very  strongly,  as  it  seems  to  me,  —  and  perhaps  too 
strongly,  —  to  vast  executive  projects  in  every  depart- 
ment of  human  activity.  We  are  apt,  in  consequence, 
to  sacrifice  high  individual  thought  and  mental  crea- 
tiveness  to  feats  of  technique  and  organized  mastery ; 
while  our  trusts,  our  syndicates,  and  combiners  of 
capital  seek  so  constantly  to  monopolize  profits,  both 


38  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

moral  and  material,  for  themselves,  by  welding  and 
concentrating  the  lesser  resources  of  individuals,  that 
single  endeavor  faints  in  the  unequal  rivalry.  Such 
a  development  artfully  conducts  the  human  race 
back,  sooner  or  later,  to  a  species  of  slavery ;  it  hands 
over  the  many  to  the  patronage  of  the  powerful  few; 
and,  unless  checked,  it  must  prove  eventually  fatal 
to  the  spirit  of  manly  emulation.  Just  as  the  surf  of 
property  accumulation  breaks  fitly  at  each  owner's 
death  upon  the  broad  bulwark  of  equal  distribution 
among  kindred,  so  would  it  be  wise,  I  think,  could 
public  policy  contrive  by  some  indirection  to  limit  in 
effect  the  achievements  of  a  lifetime  in  every  direc- 
tion to  what  fairly  and  naturally  belongs  to  the  scope 
of  that  single  life  in  competition  with  others ;  and  at 
the  same  time  that  it  lets  the  greatest  prizes  go  to  the 
fittest,  could  it  but  encourage  each  member  of  society 
to  achieve  still  his  best. 

At  all  events,  if  you  will,  let  huge  engineering, 
let  the  products  of  organized  exploit,  go  to  increase 
the  material  comfort  of  the  race;  but  for  art,  for 
scholarship,  for  literature  and  religion,  for  whatever 
appeals  most  to  imagination  and  the  moral  life,  I 
would  keep  the  freest  play  possible  to  the  individual 
and  to  individual  effort.  One  forcible  preacher 
reaches  more  hearts  than  the  composite  of  a  hundred 
preachers.  And,  furthermore,  in  gathering  historical 
facts,  we  should  remember  that  what  may  be  con- 
venient for  simple  reference  is  not  equally  so  for  con- 
secutive reading.  There  is  a  natural  progression, 
coincident  with  the  stream  of  time,  in  all  history,  all 
biography,  all  fiction;  and  to  attempt  to  read  back- 
ward, or  on  parallel  lines,  or  by  other  arbitrary 
arrangement,  produces  nausea,  drowsiness,  and  con- 
fusion of  ideas.     In  Washington  Irving's  grotesque 


HISTORICAL  INDUSTRIES.  39 

dream  in  the  British  Museum,  the  bookmakers  at 
their  toilsome  tasks  about  him  seemed  suddenly  trans- 
formed into  masqueraders  decking  themselves  out 
fantastically  from  the  literary  clothes-presses  of  the 
past  about  them. 

Co-operative  history,  or  the  alliance  of  various 
writers  in  one  description  of  past  events,  is  a  favorite 
device  of  publishers  in  our  late  day,  for  producing 
volumes  which  may  give  each  talented  contributor  as 
little  personal  exertion  as  possible.  Of  such  enter- 
prises, that  which  assigns  to  each  author  his  own 
limited  period  or  range  of  events,  is  the  best,  because 
the  most  natural,  and  here  it  is  only  needful  that 
each  should  confine  his  labor  to  his  own  portion, 
avoiding  the  dangers  of  comparison.  Less  satisfac- 
tory, because  far  more  liable  to  contradiction  and  con- 
fusion, is  that  co-operative  history  which  distributes 
topics  such  as  the  progress  of  science,  education, 
religion,  or  politics,  for  a  general  and  detached  review, 
and,  instead  of  any  proper  narrative  at  all,  supplies  a 
mass  of  heterogeneous  essays.  The  latest  plan  of 
the  kind  which  publishers  have  brought  to  my  notice, 
is  history  upon  an  alphabetical  arrangement,  resem- 
bling a  Gazetteer,  — which  proposes,  of  course,  the 
use  of  scissors  more  than  pen  or  brain.  Mr.  Hubert 
Bancroft's  plan  is,  finally,  that  of  a  literary  bureau, 
with  salaried  workers  more  or  less  trained,  over 
whom  presides  the  one  nominal  historian. 

In  this  nineteenth  century  jovi  may  thus  see  his- 
torical chasms  bridged,  and  jungles,  once  impene- 
trable, laid  open  to  the  sunlight.  But  where  can 
one  safely  define  here  the  limits  of  original  author- 
ship ?  At  what  point  does  the  elucidation  of  facts 
rise  above  the  dignity  of  manual  labor?  And  how 
far,  in  fine,  may  you  trust  the  chief  executive  of  such 


40  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS, 

an  enterprise  for  his  responsible  scholarship;  rather 
than  merely  as  the  editor  of  a  vast  compilation,  or  as 
one  who  rubs  into  shape,  and  gives  a  literary  gloss  to 
materials  of  doubtful  authenticity  ? 

Let  me  address  myself,  then,  rather  to  the  encour- 
agement of  that  great  majority  of  historical  students 
and  writers  whose  purpose  is  to  accomplish,  and  to 
accomplish  conscientiously,  results  which  may  fairljr 
be  comprehended  within  the  space  of  a  single  and 
unaided  human  life.  Even  they  who  plead  most 
forcibly  for  co-operative  investigation  in  history 
distinctly  recognize  the  advantage  of  unity  in  research 
and  expression,  and  they  concede  that,  where  one 
may  master  his  own  subject  seasonably  enough,  the 
single  skilled  workman  is  preferable  to  the  many. 
For  my  own  part,  not  meaning  to  boast,  but  to 
encourage  others,  I  may  say,  that  legal  and  historical 
works  —  the  one  kind  by  way  of  relief  to  the  other  — 
have  fairly  occupied  me  for  twenty-five  years,  with 
considerable  ground  covered  in  their  publication. 
Another  worker  may  produce  better  solid  books  than 
I  have  done,  but  he  will  hardly  be  moved  to  produce 
a  greater  number  within  the  same  space  of  time,  or 
to  pre-empt  a  Avider  range  of  research.  Whether  it 
be  from  an  innate  distrust  of  hired  sub-workers,  or 
for  economy's  sake,  or  from  the  pride  of  responsible 
authorship,  or  because  of  habits  which  I  early  formed 
in  life  of  concentrating  and  warming  into  interest 
wherever  I  personally  investigated,  —  or  whether, 
indeed,  from  all  these  considerations  combined,  —  I 
never  employed  literary  assistance  of  any  sort,  except 
for  sharing  in  the  drudgery  of  index-making,  for 
copying  out  my  rough  drafts  in  a  neat  hand  for  my 
own  revision,  and  for  transcribing  passages  from 
other  books  which  I  had  first  selected.     And  once 


HISTORICAL  INDUSTRIES.  41 

only,  when  engaging  my  amanuensis  (a  very  intelli- 
gent man),  where  historical  controversy  had  arisen 
upon  a  minor  point,  to  examine  and  collate  the 
accounts  of  various  old  newspapers,  I  found,  upon 
reviewing  his  work,  that  he  had  overlooked  a  single 
circumstance  among  these  numerous  descriptions, 
which  was  almost  decisive  of  the  issue.  In  fine, 
every  real  research,  where  I  have  published,  and 
every  page  of  composition,  has  been  my  own;  and 
having  regularly  contracted  with  my  publishers  to 
create  a  book,  instead  of  haAvking  about  its  manu- 
script when  completed,  and  having  always  been  per- 
mitted when  ready  to  hand  my  copy  to  the  printers, 
without  submitting  it  to  any  mortal's  inspection,  —  I 
have  pursued  my  own  bent,  in  shaping  out  the  task 
as  1  had  projected  it.  I  have  shown  my  manuscript 
to  no  one  at  all  for  criticism  or  approval ;  nor  have  I 
received  suggestions,  in  any  volume,  even  as  to 
literary  style  and  expression,  except  upon  printed 
sheets  from  the  casual  proof-reader,  as  the  book  went 
finally  through  the  press. 

The  counsel  of  genuine  and  disinterested  literary 
friends,  if  you  are  fortunate  enough  to  have  them,  is 
doubtless  sweet  and  stimulating;  and  for  the  want 
of  it  a  book  will  often  suffer  in  matters  of  expression, 
as  well  as  of  fact.  But  the  recompense,  on  the  other 
side,  comes  after  a  time,  in  one's  own  confirmed  skill, 
self-confidence,  individuality,  and  the  power  to  de- 
spatch; and  often  as  I  have  reproached  myself  for 
little  slips  of  language  (revising  and  even  altering  my 
plates,  upon  opportunity),  I  have  seldom  seen  reason 
to  change  the  record  or  coloring  of  historical  events, 
and  never  an  important  deduction. 

Instead,  then,  of  employing  other  persons,  trained 
or  untrained,  to  elaborate  or  help  me  out  with  the 


42  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

responsible  task  of  authorship,  I  have  sought,  as  the 
most  trustworthy  of  expert  assistance,  where  such 
aids  were  needful,  the  labors  of  accomplished  scholars 
who  had  gone  through  the  ordeal  of  authorship  before 
me.  Books  and  authors,  in  fact,  I  have  employed  for 
special  investigators,  and  an  amanuensis  for  amanuen- 
sis work  alone.  Original  records  and  information  are 
preferable  to  all  others;  but  secondary  sources  of 
knowledge  I  have  largely  accepted  as  a  labor-saving 
means,  where  I  could  bring  my  own  accumulated 
knowledge  and  habits  of  verification  to  bear  upon 
them,  so  as  to  judge  fairly  of  their  comparative 
worth.  I  have  not  disembowelled  nor  re-distributed 
their  contents ;  but  I  have  learned  to  dip  into  them 
for  the  quintessence  of  information  they  could  best 
impart.  To  all  authors,  to  all  earlier  investigators, 
I  have  applied  diligently  whatever  materials  of  con- 
sequence were  inaccessible  to  them,  or  derived  from 
my  own  later  and  more  advantageous  study. 

Special  assistance,  I  admit,  may  be  very  valuable, 
when  of  an  expert  character.  Eminent  historians 
who  have  University  pupils,  eminent  barristers  as  the 
patrons  of  the  shy  and  briefless,  —  often  employ  junior 
minds,  well-trained  young  men  of  poverty  and  ambi- 
tion, upon  the  drudgery  of  their  own  more  affluent 
investigation.  In  law-suits  the  judge  will  often  put 
out  the  analysis  of  complicated  facts  at  issue  to  some 
member  of  the  bar,  to  investigate  as  auditor  and  make 
a  report  which  shall  stand  as  prim  a  facie  evidence  of 
the  truth.  Much  the  same  confidence  may  you 
repose  in  the  published  monograph  of  some  reputable 
historical  scholar,  if  you  desire  economy  of  labor. 
Such  assistance  is  trained  already  for  your  purpose, 
and  one  obvious  advantage  of  employing  it  is,  that 
you  may  cite  the  author  and  throw  the  responsibility 


HISTORICAL  INDUSTRIES.  43 

of  your  assertion  upon  his  shoulders.  Yet,  after  all, 
one  should  be  prepared  to  do  most  of  his  own  drudg- 
ery; for  nine-tenths  of  all  the  successful  achieve- 
ments in  life,  as  it  has  been  well  observed,  consist  in 
drudgery.  AYhatever  subordinate  or  expert  assist- 
ance, then,  may  be  called  in  by  the  responsible  histo- 
rian, let  him  always  reserve  the  main  investigation  to 
himself.  In  no  other  way  can  he  rightfully  blazon 
his  name  upon  the  title-page  of  his  book,  or  approach 
the  true  ideals  of  excellence  and  thoroughness.  The 
trained  assistance  one  employs  with  only  a  mercenary 
interest  in  the  study  accomplishes  but  little,  after  all, 
as  compared  with  the  one  mind  inspired  for  its  task, 
which  concentrates  the  best  of  its  God-given  powers 
upon  precisely  what  it  seeks,  and  gains  in  skill, 
quickness,  and  accuracy  by  constant  exercise.  Judg- 
ment and  intuition  may  thus  move  rapidly  fonvard 
and  seize  upon  results.  The  student  absorbed  in  his 
subject  brings  to  bear  at  every  step  of  preliminary 
study  his  own  discrimination,  analysis,  and  compari- 
son, qualities  which  he  can  never  safely  delegate; 
even  in  crude  facts  he  is  saved  the  alternative  of 
accepting  promiscuous  heaps  from  journeymen  at 
second-hand,  or  of  verifying  personally  their  labor, 
which  is  the  worst  toils omeness  of  all.  And  it  is  by 
thus  throwing  himself  into  the  very  time  of  w^hich 
he  treats  and  becoming  enveloped  in  its  atmosphere, 
that  the  narrator  may  hope  to  kindle  his  own  imagi- 
nation and  grow  deeply  sympathetic  mth  his  subject. 
Fiery  phrases,  pictorial  hints,  startling  details,  sug- 
gestions of  effect,  meet  here  and  there  his  quick, 
artistic  eye,  which  a  subordinate  would  never  have 
discovered  among  the  dull  rubbish  of  surrounding 
circumstances.  Pen  and  memory  learn  to  aid  one 
another  in  the   exploration;  one   needs   to   abstract 


44  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS, 

nothing  from  the  books  which  serve  him  as  a  basis, 
nothing  indeed,  anywhere,  but  what  may  best  aid  his 
immediate  purpose ;  the  drift  of  long  correspondence, 
speeches  and  documents  of  merely  subsidiary  value, 
he  gathers  at  a  glance,  and  a  few  trenchant  passages 
will  serve  for  his  quotation.  What  self-directing 
scholar  has  not  felt  his  pulse  quicken  and  his  heart 
beat  high  when  in  such  close  communion  with  the 
great  actors  and  thinkers  of  the  past,  or  as  he  reads 
contemporary  reports  of  the  event,  and  lives  transac- 
tions over  again  amid  their  original  surroundings? 
And,  if  in  such  personal  exploits  among  the  buried 
cities,  new  pregnant  facts,  new  points  of  view  are 
revealed  corrective  of  prevailing  misconceptions;  if 
some  sudden  insight  into  motives,  public  or  personal, 
lights  up  his  lonely  induction,  —  how  does  the  soul 
dilate  with  that  greatest  of  all  the  triumphs  of  research, 
—  the  triumph  of  discovery. 

Nor  let  it  be  said,  as  an  objection  to  such  expendi- 
ture of  time,  that  an  economizing  historian  ought  to 
reserve  his  best  strength  for  the  loftier  task  of  arrange- 
ment and  final  composition.  Let  us  not  turn  literary 
skill  to  meretricious  uses ;  let  us  beware  how  we  steer 
blindly  among  conflicting  statements,  or  accept  for 
facts  what  only  our  paid  pupils  have  collected.  Due 
preparation  is  no  less  essential  to  tjie  historian  than 
the  art  of  telling  his  story ;  for  he  has  never  of  right 
the  free  range  of  his  imagination.  There  should  be 
a  time  to  study,  and  a  time  to  compose ;  the  one  task 
should  aid  and  alternate  with  the  other.  Nothing,  I 
am  sure,  so  relieves  a  laborious  literary  life  as  to 
diversify  its  pursuits,  —  to  change  the  subject  or  the 
mode  of  occupation.  And  in  historical  literature,  if 
we  would  save  ourselves  the  excessive  strain  which 
soon  exhausts,  let  us  turn  the  pen  which  has  been 


HISTORICAL  INDUSTRIES.  45 

vigorously  employed  for  a  sufficient  time  upon  the 
narrative  to  prosaic  annotation  and  abstracts.  Let 
us  leave  the  recital  of  results  for  one  chapter  or 
volume,  to  gather  material  and  study  for  the  next. 
We  need  not  fear  to  roam  the  broad  fields  of  investi- 
gation over,  if  we  hold  fixedly  to  our  purpose.  The 
bee  culls  sweetness  from  the  flower  cups,  before 
treading  out  the  honey.  And  the  indolence  which 
every  investigator  should  chiefly  guard  against  is  that 
of  subsiding  into  the  intellectual  pleasure  of  filling 
and  refilling  his  mental  pouch  for  his  own  delecta- 
tion, while  never  setting  himself  to  manufacture  that 
others  may  derive  a  profit. 

As  a  most  important  means  of  economizing  time 
and  personal  labor,  we  should  fix  clearly  in  advance 
the  general  scope  and  direction  we  mean  to  pursue, 
and  then  adhere  to  it,  limiting  the  range  of  investi- 
gation accordingly.  Authorship  in  history  requires 
resolution,  and  an  intelligent  purpose  besides  in  the 
development  of  the  original  plan  throughout  its  entire 
length    and    breadth.     For   as   the   area   of    mental 

o 

research  is  of  itself  boundless,  the  individual  should 
fence  off  for  himself  only  a  certain  portion.  Chance 
and  opportunity  may  unquestionably  lead  us  on  from 
one  task  of  exploration  to  another.  We  may,  like 
Gibbon,  carry  our  work  purposely  to  a  given  point, 
,  and  then  leave  a  still  further  advance  to  depend 
I  upon  health  and  favoring  circumstances.  Or,  as 
Prescott,  ]\Iotley,  and  Parkman  have  done,  we  may 
let  one  dramatic  episode,  when  fairly  compassed 
and  set  forth,  conduct  to  another  and  kindred  one, 
so  as  eventually  to  group  out  the  life's  occupation, 
whether  longer  or  shorter,  into  one  symmetrical 
whole.  But  to  attack  mountains  of  huge  material 
blindly,  without  a  just  estimate  of  life  and  physical 


46  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS, 

capabilities,  can  bring  only  despair  and  premature 
exhaustion. 

It  is  not  strange  at  all,  if,  after  announcing  and 
planning  a  work  of  so  many  pages  or  volumes,  you 
find  the  burden  of  materials  increasing  on  your 
hands ;  but  you  are  a  novice  in  book  architecture,  if, 
nevertheless,  you  cannot  build  according  to  the 
plan ;  and  you  are  certainly  the  worst  of  blunderers, 
if  you  throw  the  superabundant  materials  blindly  into 
form,  as  they  come,  and  still  strive  to  erect  by  con- 
tract, as  a  cottage,  what  should  have  been  only 
undertaken  for  a  castle.  In  all  literary  workmanship, 
or  at  least  in  historical,  there  should  be  specifications, 
and  the  specifications  should  correspond  with  the 
plan ;  the  rule  and  compasses  should  be  applied  so  as 
to  give  due  proportion  to  every  part  of  the  work. 
In  the  lesser  details  one  must  be  prepared  to  com- 
press, to  sacrifice,  to  omit,  and  no  reader  will  miss 
what  is  judiciously  left  out  as  does  the  author 
himself. 

By  thus  keeping  within  one's  intended  space,  as 
carefully  mapped  out  in  advance,  —  and  I  would 
advise  every  projector  of  a  book  to  get  practical  sug- 
gestions from  his  publisher,  and  then  clearly  settle  as 
to  size  and  subject  before  he  tackles  to  the  task,  — 
by  thus  doing  we  circumscribe  at  once  the  field  of 
investigation;  and  by  apprehending  well  that  in 
which  we  mean  to  be  impressive  or  original,  by  con- 
ceiving fitly  our  main  purpose  in  authorship,  we  are 
prepared  to  apply  ourselves  to  the  real  service  of  our 
age.  Some  writers  set  their  minds  to  work  upon 
manuals,  upon  the  abridgment  of  what  they  find  at 
hand  for  a  certain  period  and  country,  some  upon 
amplifying;  but  no  one  should  undertake  to  narrate 
history  with  the  same  fulness  as  one  who  has  told  the 


HISTORICAL  INDUSTRIES.  47 

tale  before,  unless  he  is  confident  that  he  can  truth- 
fully put  the  facts  in  a  new  light,  or  add  something 
really  valuable  which  has  not  been  already  set 
forth  elsewhere. 

Let  it  be  admitted,  in  fine,  in  all  historical  writing, 
that  much  patient  and  minute  study  must  be  bestowed 
for  one's  own  personal  gratification  alone;  that  one 
may  spread  the  result  before  his  readers,  but  not  the 
processes.  Whatever  the  historian  may  print  and 
publish  for  the  edification  of  the  public,  let  him 
endeavor  to  make  the  result  apparent  for  which  he 
prospected ;  let  him  tell  the  tale,  unfold  the  particu- 
lars, and  inculcate  the  lesson  with  the  pertinence  and 
force  which  best  befit  the  character  of  his  undertak- 
ing; and  let  him  show  his  essential  excellence  pre- 
cisely where  the  public  has  the  most  right  to  expect 
and  desire  it. 


HISTORICAL  MONOGRAPHS. 

Some  of  my  friends  think  that  I  do  scant  justice  to 
co-operative  methods  of  historical  work.  Perhaps 
they  have  misapprehended  my  meaning.  The  main 
object  of  my  former  essay  ^  was  to  oppose  to  all 
boasted  advantages  of  new  and  monoj^olizing  plans  of 
literary  labor  —  of  capitalized  scholarship,  if  I  may 
be  allowed  such  expression  —  the  immense  synthetic 
power  of  which  the  single  trained  and  healthy  scholar 
is  capable  who  pursues  his  own  consistent  course  of 
literary  production  with  diligence  and  constancy.- 
To  a  generation  intent  upon  vast  undertakings,  and 
in  all  departments  of  industry  setting  so  much  store 
by  organized  co-operation  and  so  little  by  individual 
achievement,  I  have  dared  to  plead  something  for 
the  individual.  The  illustrations  of  what  an  averaofe 
life,  rightly  and  systematically  conducted,  may  accom- 
plish with  the  pen,  are,  indeed,  easily  multiplied. 
Inventive  Avriters  stand  necessarily  apart ;  and  where 
invention  and  learning  happily  combine,  the  accumu- 
lated written  expression  of  a  single  human  brain  may 
prove  prodigious.  Bring  together,  if  you  will,  the 
manuscripts  of  some  illustrious  preacher,  journalist, 
public  officer,  or  business  director,  accumulated  in 
chronological  mass  at  his  decease,  and  the  prolific 
results  are  amazing. 

1  See  preceding  papfer. 


HISTORICAL  MONOGRAPHS.  49 

In  the  realm  of  intellectual  thought  and  study, 
what  achievement  worthy  of  a  lifetime  should  be 
thought  impossible,  if  we  regard  fairly,  as  individuals, 
our  average  limitation ;  if  we  curb  the  desire  of  selfish 
aggrandizement,  content  to  begin  where  others  have 
left  off,  and  to  end  where  others  still  may  follow? 
As  for  the  individual  task  well  in  hand,  one  accom- 
plishment leads  to  another,  and  the  lesser  develop- 
ment opens  to  view  the  greater.  Habit  and  experience 
smooth  out  the  earlier  difficulties,  and  by  a  little  arith- 
metic despondency  may  be  corrected.  For  that  which 
looms  up  so  formidable  prospectively  to  the  imagina- 
tion is  readily  built  when  you  figure  out  that  just  so 
much  labor  and  so  much  progress  from  day  to  day 
for  a  given  number  of  years  will  bring  you  to  the 
finish. 

But  I  am  far  from  meaning  to  disparage  those 
wider  possibilities  of  literary  usefulness  which  the 
employment  of  co-operative  or  subordinate  labor  may 
afford.  Especial^  valuable  must  be  such  labor  in 
the  collection  and  classified  array  of  solid  facts.  The 
more  concrete  and  simple  those  facts  and  the  clearer 
the  general  scope  of  the  unified  undertaking  the 
better  can  the  task  be  apportioned.  For  some  com- 
prehensive dictionary,  cyclopaedia,  or  catalogue,  for 
instance,  combined  labor  is  essential ;  nor  is  a  news- 
paper or  magazine  otherwise  made  readable,  where 
the  popular  taste  demands  selection  and  variety.  A 
labor-saving  contrivance  is  needed  in  the  one  instance ; 
in  the  other  a  feast  for  various  appetites.  But  for 
history  or  biography,  and  where  facts  themselves  are 
found  complex  and  scientific  deduction  inappropriate, 
—  and  where,  too,  characterization,  consistent  sum- 
mary, and  social  application  must  find  a  place,  —  the 
reader's  continuous  interest  can  only  be  engaged  by 


50  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

the  closest  unity  of  design.  And  so,  too,  should  it 
be  said,  wherever  any  one  tells  a  story.  Co-ordinate 
work  finds  here  a  closer  environment,  and  if  not  laid 
off  by  eras  or  spaces  of  narration  can  scarcely  be  laid 
off  well  at  all.  In  poetry  and  fiction  you  are  content 
with  the  product  of  one  creator;  one  vivid  mind 
illuminates  and  instructs.  Midway,  it  seems  to  me, 
between  the  collector  of  facts  and  the  imaginative 
writer  stands  the  historian;  like  the  prophet  in  the 
valley  of  dry  bones  who  gathers  the  fragments  of 
dead  men  together  and  makes  them  live  again.  His 
mental  equipment  is  not  complete  if  he  is  a  collector 
alone,  nor  if  he  is  a  narrator  alone.  The  molten 
mass  should  flow  from  his  own  heated  crucible  into 
the  moulds  he  makes  for  it. 

To  waive  for  a  moment  the  question  of  co-ordi- 
nate aid,  a  capable  historian  may  and  ought  to 
know  how  to  use  much  subordinate  assistance  to 
advantage.  There  is  the  drudgery  of  the  amanuen- 
sis, of  the  secretary,  of  our  modern  type-writer,  of 
copying  out  compositions  for  the  press,  and  of  revis- 
ing proofs.  Passages  which  the  responsible  author 
has  marked  in  other  books  may  be  thus  drawn  off ; 
parallel  statements  collated,  citations  written  out. 
So,  too,  under  one's  judicious  supervision,  reference 
lists  or  an  index  may  be  compiled,  statistics  tabulated, 
and  explorations  made  into  newspapers  and  bulky 
public  documents  for  special  statements,  facts  simple 
in  themselves  or  readily  verified,  which  laborious 
search  can  alone  reveal.  After  considerable  experi- 
ence one  may  train  this  clerical  subordinate  into  an 
intelligent  hunter  for  special  material,  or  teach  him 
to  make  good  briefs  and  abstracts,  and  in  various 
ways  save  wearisome  details  to  his  employer.  But 
the  scenting  of  the  game  is  one  thing  and  bringing 


HISTORICAL  MONOGRAPHS.  51 

down   and  bagging   it   is    quite  another.     All   such 
secondary  assistance  —  for  I  speak  not  yet  of  scholars 
and  experts  competent  to  co-operate  —  must  be  of 
moderate  scope,  and   a   proper  training  takes   time. 
The  mind  that  can  appropriate  and  apply  such  labors 
must  have  wrought  out  its   own  broad  experience, 
and  carried  constantly  its  consecutive  plans.     Like 
senior   counsel   in   a   case,    like   the   Attorney-Gen- 
eral  with   a   "devil,"   or  the    judge   whose    logical 
processes   are   aided   by  the   precedents  which  some 
secretary  has  arranged  for  his  inspection,  our  present 
investigator,    knowing   better   than   to   estimate  the 
weight  of  authorities  by  the  weight  of  books,  applies 
his    own  sense  and  discrimination  to  all   testimony 
thus  brought  before   him,   making  sure   that  it   has 
been  sought  in  the  right  quarters  and  rightly  gathered. 
His  own  mind  has  been  trained  to  conduct  dry  inves- 
tigation and  connect  results   by  quicker   divination 
than  any  subordinate  can  apply  for  him. 

But  now  to  speak  of  historical  monographs,  —a 
species  of  publication  to  which  I  have  repeatedly 
alluded,  and  never  without  respect  and  commendation. 
Here  we  have  treatises  to  consult  which  have  been 
thought  worth  printing,  and  for  whose  accuracy  in 
each  instance  some  trained  scholar  vouches  over  his 
personal  signature.  Such  studies  deserve  more  cre- 
dence than  the  gathered  pile  of  some  unknown  clerk 
whose  chief  aim  in  life  may  have  been  to  earn  his 
daily  pittance.  For  the  monograph,  be  it  brief  or 
extended,  purports  to  supply  the  results  of  an  expert 
investigation  into  some  recondite  topic ;  and  its  credi- 
bility acquires  weight  from  the  circumstance  that  the 
person  who  prepared  it  was  one  of  our  own  craft,  of 
liberal  attainments,  who  worked  presumably  under 
the  strongest  inducement  to  be  accurate.     He  seeks 


52  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

scholarly  reputation;  and  the  higher  his  reputation 
already,  the  more  confidence,  if  he  be  unbiassed,  do 
we  incline  to  give  him.  Special  investigations  of  this 
kind,  for  which  there  is  always  an  ample  field  in  the 
study  of  social  institutions,  I  have  elsewhere  likened 
to  that  of  an  auditor  or  master  of  chancery,  in  legal 
practice,  whom  a  court  will  appoint  for  its  own  con- 
venience, to  take  testimony  on  complicated  details  of 
fact  and  submit  his  report.  This  auditor  or  master 
is  no  common  citizen,  drafted  into  the  service  casually 
as  men  are  drawn  for  a  jury,  but  an  honored  member 
of  the  bar  worthy  in  that  particular  case  to  have  sat 
upon  the  bench  or  served  as  counsel.  Nor,  with  even 
such  high  assurance  of  his  capacity  and  fidelity,  is  his 
report  (which  is  a  sort  of  moQograph)  taken  for 
more  than  it  is  worth.  It  is  prima  facie  evidence  of 
conclusions  on  a  particular  branch  of  the  case  and  no 
more.  The  tribunal  has  still  to  survey  the  ampler 
field  of  controversy,  and  finally  to  adjudicate  upon 
the  general  merits  of  the  whole  cause  where  this 
investigation  may  have  disposed  of  a  particular. 

I  hail  the  auspicious  efforts  of  those  higher  Uni- 
versity instructors  who  are  busily  training  young  men 
of  the  present  generation  to  become  experts  and  co- 
laborers  in  the  grand  universal  study  of  the  past ;  who 
organize  and  send  forth  new  exploring  expeditions 
to  those  hidden  sources  of  human  history  where  rich 
treasures  of  fact  have  long  lain  buried.  And  as  a 
marked  triumph  of  such  new  instruction  the  de- 
cision of  our  Federal  Supreme  Court,  last  year,  in 
the  income  tax  case,  serves  for  illustration,  where,  by 
the  virtual  admission  of  its  grave  majority,  a  reversal 
of  past  precedents  was  due,  most  of  all  to  an  exhaust- 
ive historical  presentation,  for  the  first  time,  of  those 
essential  conditions  under  which  the  State  resources 


HISTORICAL  MONOGRAPHS.  53 

of    taxation,    at   first    exclusive,    were   bestowed   in 
1787-89  upon  the  new  and  more  perfect  Union. ^ 

Wliy  American  scholarship  has  done  little  in  its 
earlier  growth,  for  such  leading  investigations,  is 
obvious.  Americans,  until  thirty  years  ago,  had  but 
little  leisure  or  money  to  waste  upon  books  and 
pursuits  unremunerative  in  cash.  A  liberal  college 
education  went  almost  exclusively  to  the  mental 
equipment  of  young  men  for  one  of  the  three  grand 
professions  or  for  mercantile  pursuits.  General 
graduate  studies  were  not  encouraged  in  this  country 
to  any  great  extent.  Hence  history  w^as  taught  at 
our  higher  institutions,  not  to  train  men  to  habits  of 
individual  research,  but  rather  so  as  to  memorize 
past  events  and  hang  great  examples  round  the  cham- 
bers of  the  mind  on  the  pegs  of  chronology.  As  for 
historical  productions,  moreover,  whatever  literary 
market  might  exist  was  confined  to  the  narratives  of 
heroic  prowess  or  text-book  abridgments  for  the  com- 
mon schools.  Monographs,  in  such  an  age,  if  pre- 
pared at  all,  were  but  the  chance  diversion  of  men 
otherwise  actively  employed,  or  the  orator's  staple 
for  an  occasional  address.  Patriotism  or  family  pride 
might  be  stirred  on  some  choice  anniversary,  but  the 
college  educator  gave  no  great  impulse  to  solid  study 
in  the  historical  direction  nor  to  a  combination  of 
critical  results.  We  had  two  or  three  grand  histo- 
rians, but  they  were  stranded  men  of  ample  fortune. 
Even  learned  societies  found  not  readily  their  mission 
in  those  days.  How  often,  still,  does  that  brief 
epitome  of  ephemeral  facts,  prepared  like  a  school- 
boy's composition,  serve  as  the  prelude  to  some 
general   chat  or  a  more   solid  hot   supper!     In   the 

1  Pollock  V.  Farmers'  Loan  &  Trust  Co.,  158  U.  S.  601  (May,  1895J; 
Chief  Justice  Fuller's  opiuion. 


54  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

publication  of  monographs,  or  better  still,  in  a  syste- 
matic effort  to  collect  and  print  rare  letters  and 
manuscripts,  a  growing  field  has  been  found  for 
associations  which  bring  congenial  men  together  in 
State  or  local  organization,  whose  hobby  otherwise 
is  genealogical  lore,  or  the  biography  of  deceased 
members.  And  more  useful  still  for  future  promise, 
is  that  systematic  training  of  critical  investigators 
which  our  highest  Universities  are  of  late  developing. 
It  was  the  Johns  Hopkins  University,  scarce  twenty 
years  old,  which  first  adapted  the  Heidelberg  his- 
torical methods  to  American  use  under  its  munificent 
endowment;  and  now,  with  splendid  equipments  of 
their  own.  Harvard,  Yale,  Columbia,  and  other 
leading  institutions  of  the  land  extend  like  facilities 
for  post-graduate  instruction. 

Under  such  admirable  education  a  race  of  native 
investigators,  I  trust,  is  growing  up,  whose  enthusi- 
asm, if  not  rewarded  as  it  deserves,  with  the  highest 
trusts  of  political  office,  will  yet  impress  upon  our 
local  communities  convincingly  how  public  affairs 
ought  to  be  administered.  They  will  strengthen  the 
cause  of  good  government  on  the  people's  side  and 
rule  at  the  polls  by  disseminating  correct  ideas  and 
information.  Their  combined  research  will  be  directed 
to  comparative  facts  which  illustrate  domestic,  busi- 
ness, and  social  manners  and  customs,  legal  and 
political  institutions.  For  the  Freeman  apothegm^ 
—  though  perhaps  embodying  the  truth  without  the 
whole  truth  —  opens  regular  search  in  the  right 
direction. 

As  a  further  result  of  this  new  systematic  training, 
we  may  look  for  a  better  classification,  a  more  thor- 
ough gathering  of  archives  and  private  papers  which 

1  "  History  is  past  politics ;  politics  is  present  history/' 


HISTORICAL  MONOGRAPHS,  55 

evidence  great  events.  The  indexing  of  documents 
in  our  American  State  Department  is  a  step  taken  in 
the  right  direction ;  and  worthy  of  all  commendation 
is  the  fresh  editorial  work  which  has  lately  begun 
upon  the  hoarded  correspondence  of  our  earliest 
Presidents.  To  turn  on  the  fullest  light  becomes  the 
prevalent  historic  disposition  and  the  true  one,  avoid- 
ing, nevertheless,  as  we  ought,  the  scandalous  inva- 
sion of  private  life  and  of  matters  unessential  to 
public  and  popular  development.  Our  American 
Congress  has  made  its  own  noble  benefaction  to 
history  by  throwing  open  for  universal  inspection  the 
whole  record  of  our  late  Civil  War,  Union  and  Con- 
federate, in  the  nation's  possession,  —  a  monument 
in  multiplied  print,  unparalleled  probably  in  the 
world's  experience,  to  the  modern  power  of  public 
opinion.  Scholars  have  in  this  voluminous  testimony 
the  right  materials  upon  which  to  base  a  military 
narrative  of  events  while  yet  the  public  judgment  is 
impressible ;  and  the  danger  once  imminent  that  the 
battles  and  leaders  of  the  Civil  War  would  be  re- 
created from  the  false,  contradictory,  and  slipshod 
statements  of  casual  survivors  has  been  averted  as  it 
ought  to  be.  For  —  let  alone  the  differing  bias  of 
the  concurrent  and  the  retrospect,  the  personal  dispo- 
sition to  shift  and  justify  where  circumstances  have 
changed  and  one's  cause  was  lost,  the  boastful  swell 
that  the  swaggerer  takes  on  when  rivals  and  cross- 
examiners  are  dead  —  a  sufficient  warning  against 
implicit  reliance  on  such  testimony  may  be  found  in 
the  honest  lapses  of  memory  alone.  On  this  point 
let  me  mention  my  own  experience.  My  part  in  the 
Civil  War  was  humble  enough,  but  my  disposition 
to  recite  what  I  had  seen  as  honest  as  any  man's. 
Details  of  the  picture  which  youthful  memory  engraved 


56  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

gradually  on  my  mind  were  materially  changed,  when 
a  diary  which  I  had  carried  on  my  person  through  a 
whole  campaign  disappeared  from  among  my  papers 
and  turned  up  again  for  inspection  some  twenty  years 
later.  For  no  testimony  so  surely  and  so  often 
confounds  the  subsequent  tale  of  the  same  witness 
as  his  contemporaneous. 

A  needful  stimulus  has  been  given  to  the  produc- 
tion of  monographs  by  the  increased  means  of  placing 
them  generously  before  the  public.  Formerly  a  rich 
man  only,  or  a  few  interested  subscribers,  would  bear 
the  cost  of  printing;  for  publishers  saw  no  profit  in 
such  essays,  and  see  none  still,  while  the  periodicals 
admitted  them  but  rarely.  But  latterly  our  learned 
societies  have  furnished  printed  collections  of  their 
own,  and  still  more  recently  our  foremost  Universi- 
ties. The  American  Historical  Association  and  the 
American  Historical  Review  are  among  the  latest 
hopeful  agencies  in  this  useful  direction,  and  with 
especial  reference  to  national  exploration.  Two 
things  seem  highly  desirable  for  the  widest  usefulness 
of  such  critical  and  co-operative  labors :  one,  that  the 
collection  of  our  monographs  be  intelligently  directed 
to  the  most  obvious  wants  of  the  age ;  another,  that 
a  reference  index,  well  classified  and  arranged,  and 
kept  up  to  date,  shall  direct  the  consulting  scholar 
for  any  topic  or  period  to  such  monograph  literature 
as  may  assist  his  search  for  information. 

Yet,  after  all,  however  valuable  the  writing  of 
monographs  may  become,  however  essential  to  the 
elucidation  of  historical  truth  in  the  by-places,  we 
should  not  overestimate  its  practical  importance, 
nor,  as  it  seems  to  me,  expect  such  essays  to  supplant 
that  more  comprehensive  survey  and  description  of 
the   past  which  historians   have  hitherto  considered 


HISTORICAL  MONOGRAPHS.  57 

their  natural  task.  For  the  writer  of  a  historical 
monograph  is  the  historian  in  his  workshop,  or,  if  we 
prefer,  the  historian's  own  skilled  assistant,  w^hose 
product  must  enter  into  the  tissues  of  his  own  task 
like  all  other  nutritious  substances.  Often  is  the 
conductor  of  a  comprehensive  narrative  led  into  these 
recondite  channels  or  feeders  which  he  pursues  at 
leisure  and  describes  in  monographs  of  his  own.  I 
still  recall  the  analogy  of  that  complicated  suit  in 
chancery  which  one  directing  tribunal  expects  to 
work  to  final  results  notwithstanding  the  incidental 
issues  of  fact  which  may  have  been  put  out  for  a 
finding.  There  is  no  royal  road  to  capacious  learn- 
ing, still  less  to  capacious  wisdom.  Monographs 
serve  the  special  effort,  just  like  a  magazine  article. 
The  writer  of  a  monograph  may  elaborate  farther. 
Many  monographs  may  make  a  narrative  of  events ; 
but  not  unless  they  are  consecutive,  in  just  accordance 
vaih  a  master-plan,  and  with  the  thread  held  fast  by 
a  master.  The  more  persistent  and  sj'stematic  our 
exploit  into  realities,  the  broader  becomes  the  range 
of  our  knowledge  and  experience,  and  the  better  is 
one  qualified  to  write  of  human  life,  past  or  present, 
in  its  amplest  relation.  Specialized  investigation, 
taken  by  itself,  is  like  boring  for  a  well,  and  the 
deeper  we  dig  the  closer  we  find  our  environment; 
we  may  reach  a  new  water-spring  far  below,  but  the 
starry  sky  above  us  is  but  a  small  disk  in  sight,  while 
the  topography  of  the  earth's  vast  surface  about  our 
entrance-place  has  vanished.  Some  ampler  surveyor, 
some  intelligence  more  comprehensive,  must  direct 
these  literary  divers,  or  at  least  apply  what  they  have 
dipped  out  in  discreet  combination.  The  hidden 
treasures  brought  thus  to  light  must  be  coined  into 
money  and  made  to  circulate.      Culture  finds  little 


58  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

to  attract,  little  artistic  delight,  in  a  bare  wilderness 
perforated  with  the  pickaxe.  Who  is  this  director 
of  research,  this  medium  for  moral  lessons,  this 
guide  of  posterity,  but  the  true  historian,  whose  own 
wide  range  of  philosophy  and  study  entitles  him  to 
the  confidence  of  the  public?  From  the  literary 
standpoint  alone  we  find  that  the  books  describing 
human  life  and  invention  which  influence  us  the 
most,  which  are  the  most  readable,  are,  on  the  whole, 
of  individual  fruition  and  not  co-operative ;  for  though 
each  vivacious  intellect  that  finds  admirers  will  find 
censors  as  well,  the  public  seeks  still,  as  it  has  al- 
ways sought,  its  prime  inspiration  from  single  minds 
of  a  superior  cast  capable  of  much  continuity  and 
impressive  presentation.  This  you  cannot  look  for 
in  works  where  different  writers,  differently  brought 
up,  and  with  a  different  growth  of  ideas,  strive  to 
give  you  their  composite  thought.  A  dictionary  or 
gazetteer  for  ready  reference  may  be  thus  constructed, 
but  not  a  narrative.  Different  eras  for  treatment 
may  of  course  be  apportioned  among  different  narra- 
tors ;  for  this  is  merely  to  subdivide,  and  the  story  or 
history  remains  what  it  always  was,  an  unfinished 
tale.  Concrete  facts,  in  a  word,  bottom  facts,  are 
not  enough  to  make  books  readable;  there  must  be 
a  dignified  marshalling  of  matter,  pictorial  grouping, 
effective  massing,  vivid  characterization  and  descrip- 
tion, a  sound  political  and  social  philosophy. 

In  preparing  materials  for  any  extensive  exposition 
of  history  one  should  first  draw  up  carefully  a  rough 
sketch  of  the  main  epochs  or  topics  to  be  embraced. 
It  is  well,  I  think,  to  keep  some  handy  blank-book 
for  such  a  sketch ;  and  in  preparing  the  classified  plan 
to  mark  each  running  chapter  or  subdivision  which 
one  proposes  to  occupy  by  some  arbitrary  sign,  such 


HISTORICAL  MONOGRAPHS.  59 

as  a  letter  of  the  alphabet.  This  same  blank-book 
may  also  contain  a  list  of  the  authorities  which  the 
writer  has  examined  or  means  to  examine  under  each 
topic.  Slips,  note-sheets,  and  large  paper,  distin- 
guished each  in  an  upper  corner  by  the  arbitrary  sign 
of  its  topic,  such  as  I  have  suggested,  can  then  be 
used,  as  convenience  may  serve,  for  the  notes,  cita- 
tions or  abstracts,  adduced  in  the  course  of  one's  pre- 
paratory study;  and  by  large  envelopes  for  the  slips, 
rubber  bands  or  pins  to  connect  the  sheets,  and  pack- 
ages or  portfolios  to  keep  these  alphabetical  topics 
apart,  an  author's  amplest  materials  become  easily 
arranged  for  special  review  and  comparison  when 
active  composition  begins.  As  for  secondary  narra- 
tives fit  for  basing  one's  own  story  upon,  a  rapid 
worker  may,  by  keeping  several  such  books  open 
before  him  at  parallel  pages,  compose  as  he  writes, 
and  so  economize  his  time  and  labor.  Where  your 
materials  first  collected  have  since  been  condensed 
and  digested,  and  one  draft  of  composition  follows 
another,  writing  paper  of  different  color  or  quality 
may  serve  to  distinguish  the  revised  from  the  unre- 
vised  portion.  At  all  events,  one  should  before  com- 
posing make  careful  plans  for  his  book  and  fix  upon 
a  rough  outline,  however  much  he  may  change  the 
plan  in  details  as  his  book  progresses;  for  brain-work 
systematically  applied  is  indispensable  to  all  long- 
sustained  productive  effort. 


HISTORICAL   TESTIMONY. 

OuK  common  law,  whicli  is  not  given  to  flattery, 
pays  a  delicate  compliment  to  writers  of  history,  in 
permitting  their  works  to  be  cited  in  conrt  with 
something  of  the  anthenticity  of  official  documents. 
This  privilege,  which  books  of  art  and  science  have 
not  yet  attained,  and  books  of  speculation  never  can, 
should  confirm  us  in  the  conviction  that  the  truth 
of  history  is  above  everything  else  what  historians 
should  strive  after;  that  the  accurate  and  diligent 
presentation  of  past  events,  of  past  public  facts,  of 
past  manners  and  customs,  must  constitute  after  all 
the  basis  of  their  permanent  renown  and  usefulness. 
Opinions  change  from  age  to  age  ;  but  facts  well 
interpreted  once  are  interpreted  forever.  Hence  the 
deductions,  the  moral  lessons  of  history,  one  should 
hold  subordinate  to  a  candid,  conscientious,  and  cour- 
ageous exploration  for  the  truth  and  the  whole  truth ; 
all  hypotheses  should  be  kept  under  curb  ;  the  writer's 
imagination  ought  to  be  like  that  of  a  painter  whose 
model  is  kept  before  his  eyes.  We  should  not  seek 
unduly  to  stir  the  passions  of  our  readers,  nor  to  color 
artfully  for  effect ;  it  is  enough  if  we  can  interest  and 
gain  their  sympathy.  Fancy,  theorizing,  false  ideals, 
and  false  inferences  have  no  place  in  such  sober 
efforts  ;  conjecture  should  not  supplement  study,  nor 

Read  before  the  American  Historical  Association,  at  Washington, 
December  27,  1895. 


HISTORICAL    TESTIMONY.  61 

ought  the  fagots  of  study  to  be  piled  as  fuel  for  that 
ignis  fatuus^  the  philosophy  of  history.  For  the  realm 
of  the  historian  is  the  actual,  and  his  art  should  be  to 
reproduce  life's  panorama. 

Not  only,  then,  does  every  historical  writer  who 
goes  into  print  owe  it  to  the  public  to  be  as  accurate 
as  possible  from  the  commencement,  but  errors  or 
omissions  of  fact  and  misleading  deductions  which  he 
afterwards  discovers  should  be  promptly  and  heroic- 
ally corrected.  He  cannot  afford  to  set  up  for  a 
guide,  and  remain  to  the  end  a  false  one.  That 
which  he  has  once  published  ought  to  be  published 
under  his  tacit  pledge  to  make  afterwards  all  needful 
correction ;  and  he  may  fairly  ask  to  be  judged  by  his 
work  only  as  he  finally  leaves  it.  There  should  be 
vision  and  revision.  Not  a  single  monograph  which 
clears  up  minor  particulars,  where  he  had  not  per- 
sonally searched,  should  be  wasted  upon  his  notice ; 
not  a  criticism  by  one  competent  to  correct,  however 
harshly  and  unfeelingly  expressed.  It  is  better,  of 
course,  to  be  wholly  right  at  first;  but  that  is  not 
easy.  Knowledge  which  in  a  measure  we  must  all  of 
us  gain  at  second-hand  cannot  be  infallible;  and  the 
best  we  may  promise  is,  to  purpose  right  and  maintain 
that  purpose.  So  positive  is  it,  as  Cicero  has  elo- 
quently stated  the  maxim,  that  each  historian  should 
dare  to  say  whatever  is  true  and  fear  to  record  a 
falsehood. 

Nor  can  we,  I  think,  pay  the  common  law  a  better 
compliment  in  return  for  its  flattering  confidence, 
than  to  adapt  to  our  own  use  for  investigation  some 
of  its  familiar  rules  and  methods  for  the  right  elicit- 
ing of  truth  from  testimony.  Historical  scholars  are 
investigators ;  and  they  should  be  trained  to  investi- 
gate, —  to  weigh  and  measure  together  the  authori- 


62  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

ties,  and  not  merely  to  collate  and  cite  tliem.  We 
relax,  of  course,  as  we  must,  that  rigid  distrust  which 
the  old  common  law  showed  in  excluding  from  the 
witness-stand  all  interested  parties.  We  adopt  that 
better  rule  of  modern  tribunals  which  hears  all  testi- 
mony founded  upon  direct  knowledge  of  the  matter 
at  issue,  applying  a  strict  scrutiny,  however,  and  a 
searching  cross-examination  to  each  individual  wit- 
ness. We  ask  his  means  of  knowledge,  his  character 
for  truth  and  veracity,  the  bias  or  prejudice  under 
which  he  testifies.  We  reconcile  contradictions,  bal- 
ance probabilities,  consider  presumptions  and  the 
burden  of  proof,  compare  and  adjudicate.  What  is 
deliberately  written  down  we  prefer  for  exactness  to 
the  oral ;  primary  authorities  to  secondary ;  what  one 
admits  against  himself  to  what  it  suits  him  to  declare ; 
testimony  solemnly  given  under  oath,  or  upon  the 
death-bed,  to  the  careless  and  casual  utterances  of  every- 
day life ;  that  which  is  corroborated  to  that  which  is 
unsupported  or  denied ;  the  probable  to  the  improbable. 
Whatever  one  says  when  the  event  is  recent,  we  trust 
sooner  than  that  which  he  says  far  subsequent,  in 
reliance  upon  a  too  treacherous  memory ;  and  for 
ourselves  we  choose,  wherever  we  may  apply  it,  the 
observation  of  our  own  immediate  senses  to  that 
hearsay,  upon  which,  in  spite  of  himself,  each  investi- 
gator of  the  past,  each  historian  or  chronicler,  must 
so  greatly  rest. 

The  scholarship,  then,  and  the  reputed  honesty  of 
every  writer  whose  works  we  are  to  study,  become  of 
prime  consequence  in  judging  of  his  credibility ;  and 
so,  too,  though  perhaps  in  a  less  degree,  the  conscious 
or  unconscious  bias  under  which  he  wrote.  Patriot- 
ism itself  gives  to  each  loyal  citizen  a  bias  or  preju- 
dicial direction;  and  this  is  sure  to  affect  historical 


HISTORICAL    TESTIMONY,  63 

narrative,  since  one  does  not  easily  separate  his  task 
from  the  lesson  he  has  in  view.  This  bias  becomes 
very  strong  where  one's  country  or  State  was  a  bel- 
Hgerent,  or  his  immediate  fellow-citizens  engaged  in 
civil  war.  The  prepossessions  of  religion  and  politics 
have  also  an  immense  influence.  You  do  not  expect 
a  Macaulay  to  do  entire  justice  to  Tories,  nor  an 
Alison  to  Frenchmen,  nor  a  Lingard  to  Protestants 
and  the  English  Reformation,  nor  a  Gibbon  to  the 
Christian  religion.  Our  American  school  histories 
glorify  without  stint  the  heroes  of  1776  and  the 
American  Revolution;  over  the  causes  and  course 
of  our  latest  civil  strife  they  become  politic  enough. 
What  American  youth,  however,  is  trained  to  apolo- 
gize for  the  King  and  Parliament  that  strove  patrioti- 
cally to  maintain  the  integrity  of  British  dominion, 
or  to  do  honor  to  our  colonial  loyalists  who  remained 
loyal  ?  One  of  the  most  valuable  contributions  to 
American  history,  of  recent  years,  embraces  a  narra- 
tive of  the  Mexican  War  as  the  Mexicans  wrote  it.  / 
Will  the  time  ever  come,  in  the  advance  of  race  edu-  \ 
cation,  when  the  negro  or  the  red  man  may  compose 
a  history  of  this  continent  and  its  civilization  from 
the  standpoint  of  his  own  race  experience?  ^ 

Impartial  treatment,  and  the  effort  to  deal  fairly  by 
all  races  and  all  nations  and  all  men,  are  qualities 
praiseworthy  in  any  writer ;  yet  we  must  confess  that 
a  cold  and  colorless  narration  fails  of  effect,  and  that 
each  one  of  us  dearly  desires  the  applause  of  his  own 
countrymen  and  constituency.  There  are  special  risks 
to  be  run,  therefore,  when  writing  of  times  and  conten- 
tions which  have  not  yet  cooled  down  and  solidified,  so 
to  speak  ;  and  here  is  it  that  they  have  the  advantage 
as  narrators,  who,  like  the  British  Gibbon  and  Arnold, 
and  perhaps  our  own  Prescott  and  Motley,  devote 


64  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

their  literary  skill  and  scliolarsliip  to  describing  some 
period  of  the  distant  past,  and  to  countries  and  civili- 
zations only  remotely  connected  with  their  own.  Or 
if,  like  Freeman  of  the  one  country  and  Parkman  of 
the  other,  or  like  Guizot  of  France  and  the  great  in- 
vestigators of  modern  Germany,  they  search  into  the 
institutions  of  their  own  native  land,  they  stake  out 
some  period  for  their  toil  far  enough  back  to  admit  of 
a  passionless  perspective.  And  yet,  after  all,  the  vivid 
portray ers  of  their  own  times  and  countries  have 
hitherto  enjoyed  the  surest  posthumous  confidence, 
especially  when,  like  Herodotus,  Thucydides,  Xeno- 
phon,  or  Csesar,  the  writer  describes  scenes  and 
events  of  which  he  has  personally  partaken. 

In  biography,  again,  where  history  is  seen  teaching 
by  example,  we  find  an  obvious  bias  of  the  writer  to 
ascribe  all  the  influence  possible  to  the  hero  of  his 
tale,  —  to  make  him,  if  he  can,  the  radiator  of  events, 
the  centre  and  sun  of  the  system,  round  which  all 
other  luminaries  of  his  age  revolved.  The  official 
biographer,  more  especially,  to  whom  family  papers 
are  confided,  is  apt  to  be  one  of  the  family  seeking  to 
keep  up  the  ancestral  reno^^oi,  or  some  family  friend 
trusted  for  the  pious  duty ;  and  hence  the  laudatory 
strain,  the  panegyric,  the  effort  to  revivify  the  dead 
man's  friends  and  to  slay  his  slain,  that  we  not  un- 
frequently  witness  in  such  narratives,  with  amiable 
emotion,  but  withal  a  little  sceptical.  More  candor, 
certainly,  ive  look  for  in  a  family  biography  than  in 
an  epitaph  or  a  funeral  oration;  but  we  should  be 
disappointed  enough  not  to  find  from  such  a  biogra- 
pher the  strongest  defence  of  his  hero,  as  to  all  con- 
troverted points  of  his  career  Avhere  public  opinion 
had  been  in  suspense  or  misinformed ;  and  we  should 
expect,  moreover,  a  fair  peep  into  the  private  port- 


HISTORICAL    TESTIMONY,  65 

folio  for  family  letters  and  confidences,  which  histoiy 
would  feel  free  to  appropriate  in  its  own  way  as  its 
own  authentic  material,  regardless  of  the  family  in- 
junction. All  filial  prepossessions,  all  that  personal 
partiality  which  close  intimacy  exacts  as  its  tribute, 
let  us  treat  with  reverence,  provided  we  are  left  to 
estimate  for  ourselves  and  to  supply  the  corrective 
that  justice  to  others  may  demand.  For  my  part,  I 
do  not  envy  the  man  who  is  too  callous  to  become 
intimate  at  all;  who  can  explore  a  kindred  human 
heart  as  though  he  held  a  surgical  instrument  in  his 
hand;  who  can  enter  the  recesses  of  a  noble  soul, 
whatever  its  human  shortcomings,  without  one  throb 
of  emotion.  Love,  compassion,  need  not,  of  course, 
be  that  emotion  in  every  instance ;  there  is  the 
earnestness  of  sympathy  in  one  biographer,  and  the 
earnestness  of  antipathy  in  another.  Let  us,  however, 
have  earnestness ;  for  the  wiiter,  historian,  or  biog- 
rapher to  be  most  distrusted,  is  he,  in  my  opinion, 
who  gains  no  earnestness  at  all  from  his  subject,  but 
remains  wholly  neutral,  negative,  and  external,  — 
critical,  quizzical,  or  cynical,  as  the  mood  may  move 
him,  —  or  extending  the  arm  of  judicial  patronage, 
like  some  self-chosen  Rhadamanthus  who  practises 
before  the  looking-glass. 

There  is  still  another  bias  to  which  all  literary 
authorship  is  peculiarly  liable,  now  that  our  great 
purchasing  public  supplants  the  influential  patron  to 
whom  a  book  was  formerly  dedicated.  I  mean  that 
of  pampering,  for  the  sake  of  immediate  circulation 
and  profit,  instead  of  writing  out  what  one  thinks  at 
heart,  and  supplying  to  those  who  seek  knowledge 
the  strong  meat  of  correct  information.  So  immense 
has  become  the  power  of  fiction  in  the  community  of 
late,  that  facts  themselves  are  too  readily  accepted 

5 


66  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

with  a  fictitious  embellishment ;  and  readers,  even  of 
the  more  solid  books,  will,  many  of  them,  ask  chiefly 
to  be  amused  or  excited,  and  not  to  have  their  own 
complacency  disturbed.  Publishers  often  seek  what 
is  popular,  w^hat  will  sell  readiest  and  coin  money; 
and  their  mercenary  estimates  may  distort  the  views 
of  an  author,  so  as  to  hinder  him  from  remaining 
constant  to  his  best  ideals,  God  forbid  that  an 
author  should  not  make  himself  interesting  if  he  can, 
or  write  books  that  are  salable ;  but  the  higher  grade 
of  scholarship  will  refuse  to  suppress  or  misrepresent 
for  the  sake  of  popularity,  or  to  make  the  unripe 
fruits  of  study  look  tempting  by  applying  the  high 
polish  of  a  brilliant  style.  He  will  not  degenerate 
from  historian  into  a  gossip,  nor  like  a  gossip  shift  his 
views  of  men  and  measures  to  suit  his  trivialities. 

Here  let  us  di^inguish,  as  the  law  of  evidence  bids 
us,  between  the  two  great  classes  of  authorities  offered 
in  testimony,  —  the  primary  and  the  secondary.  No 
one  should  investigate  into  historical  facts,  without  this 
fundamental  distinction  well  borne  in  mind.  Under 
primary  authorities  we  comprehend,  of  course,  all 
public  records  and  documents,  official  reports,  every 
original  source  of  information;  and  we  may  fairly 
refer  to  the  same  head  for  ourselves  the  private  and 
contemporaneous  statements  and  correspondence  of 
those  who  were  actors  or  eye-witnesses  in  the  events 
or  experiences  which  they  describe ;  and,  furthermore, 
though  \vith  cautious  reserve,  reports  of  the  contem- 
porary press,  from  contemporary  observation.  Sec- 
ondary as  to  classification,  and  quite  subordinate  and 
subsidiary  to  all  this,  let  us  reckon  newspaper  com- 
ment and  generalization,  and  the  literary  remnants, 
materials,  and  memoranda  of  those  who  simply  relate 
what  others  have  told  them.     All  such  materials  are 


HISTORICAL    TESTIMONY,  67 

but  secondary;  and  so,  necessarily,  are  those  other 
narratives,  however  trustworthy,  which  we  are  com- 
pelled to  consult,  more  or  less,  under  any  circum- 
stances, because  primary  evidence  is  not  accessible, 
or  our  o\vn  power  and  opportunity  for  research  are 
limited. 

Works  of  travel  afford  much  coloring  matter  for 
history;  but  only  so  far  as  the  traveller  tells  what 
he  saw  with  his  own  eyes.  The  very  book  we  toil 
upon  mth  pains  and  put  forth,  whatever  our  own 
primary  sources  of  information,  becomes  but  second- 
ary proof  to  our  readers,  so  far  as  we  have  not  stated 
facts  as  eye-mtnesses.  Hence,  in  historical  studies, 
you  may  separate  quotations  from  the  context  for 
trustworthy  matter,  or  accord  to  the  same  writer  more 
credence  in  one  connection  than  in  another.  Quota- 
tions may  be  verified ;  and  with  the  help  of  citations 
we  may  go  over  the  whole  original  ground  for  our- 
selves, though  we  are  not  likely  to  do  so.  Writers 
themselves  like  to  be  trusted;  they  cannot  turn  the 
processes  of  their  own  investigation  inside  out,  nor 
display  to  the  reader  all  the  testimony  which  the  res 
gestce  afforded  them.  Time  enters  into  the  essence  of 
all  human  labor ;  and  one  would  hardly  be  a  laborer 
himself  if  he  did  not  hope  to  save  labor  to  others. 

Primary  evidence,  then,  under  some  such  classifica- 
tion as  I  have  endeavored  to  indicate,  should  in  all 
cases  be  preferred  by  the  investigator  to  secondary, 
wherever  available ;  for  in  spite  of  what  literary  indo- 
lence may  claim  to  the  contrary,  you  gain  thus  not 
only  greater  moral  satisfaction,  but  often  an  economy 
of  time  besides.  You  are  saved  a  comparison  of  col- 
lateral statements  with  the  added  danger  of  restating 
errors.  Fill  your  pitcher  at  the  fountain-head  and 
you  need  not  scoop  and  scrape  further  down  among  a 


68  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

hundred  rills.  Seek  original  records,  original  reports, 
original  letters,  original  documents,  or  the  authentic 
publication  of  them,  —  not  content  with  mere  extracts 
or  abstracts  Avliich  others  have  made,  —  and  you  will 
be  often  surprised  to  find  how  some  suggestive  phrase 
or  turn  of  expression,  which  did  not  attract  the  writer 
who  read  the  whole  instrument  before  you,  —  since 
his  standpoint  was  a  different  one,  —  will  flash  out 
from  the  dull  verbiage  with  a  new  and  forcible  appli- 
cation. For  the  standpoint  of  the  present  does  not 
coincide  with  that  of  former  times,  nor  does  the  array 
of  facts  that  immediately  interests,  or  the  desired 
application  of  past  experience  to  present  action,  cease 
to  vary  with  varying  eras.  How  different  must  be 
the  method  of  historical  research  among  primary 
documents  which  illustrate  our  present  annals  from 
those  of  earlier  centuries  !  Far  behind  us  lie  the 
chronicles,  the  musty  archives,  the  rare  manuscripts 
of  those  feudal  governments  which  flourished  when 
printing  was  unknown  and  literary  appliances  were 
rude.  We  live  in  the  parting  radiance  of  a  great 
century  of  popular  development,  looking  towards 
the  horizon  of  a  new,  and,  as  we  hope,  a  greater  one. 
Government,  once  conducted  in  secret  councils,  now 
pursues  its  routine  out-of-doors,  observed  of  all  men, 
until  the  official  evidence  of  the  times  becomes  an 
overwhelming  mass.  Public  documents  are  printed, 
multiplied,  scattered  broadcast  from  the  press,  so  that 
you  may  burn  or  make  pulp  of  the  share  which  falls 
to  your  own  use,  and  yet  leave  copies  behind  in 
superabundance  for  the  information  of  posterity. 
Current  literature,  current  journalism,  current  read- 
ing matter,  good  and  bad,  swell  the  stores  elsewhere 
accumulating  for  that  ideal  personage,  the  future 
historian ;  besides  those  official  publications,  State  and 


HISTORICAL   TESTIMONY.  69 

national,  executive,  legislative,  and  judicial,  which 
overflow  the  huge  public  basins  built  to  hold  them. 
On  yonder  hill  ^  legislation,  one  department  of  gov- 
ernment alone,  has  stretched  far  its  marble  wings 
northward  and  southward,  and  at  length  added  great 
catacombs  doAvn  deep  underneath  the  foundation 
walls  of  its  temple,  to  hold  the  buried  treasures  of 
Congressional  committee-rooms.  There  rest  in  a 
common  tomb  the  corpses  of  bills  safely  delivered 
and  of  bills  still-born,  shrouded  petitions,  and  the 
reports  upon  petitions  j  this  immense  mass  displaying 
for  posterity's  information  the  whole  embryo  process 
of  legislation,  —  all  the  minutise,  in  short,  that  politi- 
cal science  might  ever  msh  hereafter  to  exhume, 
except,  indeed,  the  mysterious  lobbying  and  log-roll- 
ing that  may  have  so  often  influenced  their  delicate 
creation.  To  historically  reconstruct  the  earlier  cen- 
turies, it  might  be  enough  to  compare  the  meagre 
secondary  authorities  extant,  or  through  official  favor 
gain  access  to  lean  archives  mysteriously  locked ;  but 
to  reconstruct  this  nineteenth  century  you  must 
thrash  out  the  golden  grains  from  storehouses  already 
crammed  with  chaff,  whose  doors  stand  open. 

Besides  that  keenly  discriminating  scent  for  the 
useful  among  old  rubbish,  our  future  historian  will 
need,  like  us  earlier  brethren  of  the  craft,  habits  of 
careful  comparison  as  to  whatever  materials,  whatever 
evidence,  he  admits  into  his  case,  —  not  mingling 
primary  and  secondary  proof  indiscriminately,  as 
though  of  equal  value ;  not  taking  any  witness  upon 
his  ipse  dixit ^  apart  from  his  means  of  knowledge,  his 
probable  bias,  and  his  general  worthiness  of  credence ; 
not  deciding  issues  by  numerical  count  of  the  authori- 
ties, like  that  old  Dutch  judge  who  summed  up  in 

1  Capitol  Hill,  "Washington,  D.  C,  where  this  paper  was  read. 


70  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

favor  of  the  litigant  producing  the  greater  number 
of  persons  on  the  stand;  not  interpreting  a  great 
constitutional  document,  as  some  would  interpret 
Shakespeare,  so  as  to  make  it  the  text  of  their 
own  fanciful  inspiration;  but  reading  all  authors, 
all  testimony,  in  the  light  of  the  age  in  which  they 
existed,  and  illuminating  the  whole  pathway  of 
past  events  with  the  fullest  lustre  of  surrounding 
circumstances. 

Furthermore,  on  weighing  and  determining  where 
witnesses  contradict,  as  they  often  must,  and  the 
truth  of  events  is  not  clear,  our  scholar  will  consider 
the  presumptions  proper  in  each  case  ;  he  will  not 
reject  that  which  has  passed  into  established  belief, 
for  the  sake  of  novel  and  ingenious  estimates,  without 
putting  the  burden  of  proof  where  it  belongs,  and 
taking  the  new  proof  for  simply  what  it  is  worth. 
Nor  will  he  disdain  that  popular  verdict,  always 
deliberately  and  upon  good  evidence  rendered,  and 
always  presumptively  correct,  though  liable  of  course 
to  final  reversal,  which  is  known  as  the  judgment  of 
history.  Some  important  element  in  the  formation 
of  a  country's  earlier  civilization,  or  some  individual 
influence,  may  have  been  overlooked  or  too  lightly 
regarded,  in  posterity's  estimate ;  happy,  then,  is  the 
historical  scholar  who  can  produce  new  testimony, 
and  set  opinion  right;  but  he  asks  more  than  the 
law  of  presumptive  evidence  will  grant  him,  when  he 
undertakes,  on  the  strength  of  that  testimony  aided 
only  by  conjecture,  to  set  the  past  judgment  of  his- 
tory Avholly  aside,  and  reconstruct  past  civilization 
upon  his  new  theory,  as  though  the  burden  of  proof 
did  not  rest  still  upon  his  o^vn  shoulders. 


HISTORICAL   STYLE. 

I  DOUBT  whether  I  ought  to  discourse  at  all  upon 
this  particular  topic.  There  are  various  critics  for 
whose  literary  opinions  I  cherish  high  respect,  who 
have  not  scrupled  to  berate  me  as  one  of  bad  taste  in 
historical  expression.  Even  when  they  have  come  to 
acknowledge  that  there  is  some  force  in  the  new 
materials  brought  to  light  in  my  five  volumes,  and 
that  my  work  has  after  all  some  merit  in  point  of 
scholarship,  they  still  maintain  their  disapprobation  of 
its  rough,  harsh,  and  "swashbuckling"  style.  "I 
cannot  get  over  your  facts,"  writes  very  frankly  one 
New  England  professor,  whose  critical  acumen  is 
reputed  so  great  that  I  am  almost  tempted  to  believe 
him ;  "  but  1  must  still  say  that  I  think  your  style 
very  inelegant.'* 

And  yet  there  are  other  critics,  equally  competent, 
who  have  gone  out  of  their  way  to  commend  this  same 
historical  composition  as  warm,  vivid  in  its  coloring, 
lucid,  epigrammatic,  and  "intensely  interesting;" 
which  is  praise  enough  for  any  man.  And  years  ago 
the  present  author  Avas  pronounced  in  a  leading  law 
periodical  "  the  best  law-writer  of  our  day  in  point  of 
style."  All  these  are  the  unsought  comments  of 
personal  strangers  to  myself,  and  not  my  own.  I 
conclude,  therefore,  that  men  of  good  critical  acquire- 
ments differ  among  themselves  in  their  estimates  of 
what  should  constitute  a  meritorious  style.     This,  I 


72  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

imagine,  is  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  some  whose 
ordained  function  it  is  to  criticise  and  not  perform, 
set  up  an  ideal  of  all-round  perfection  that  neither 
they  themselves  could  have  attained  nor  any  other 
man  who  ever  lived ;  but  more  still  I  ascribe  it  to  that 
difference  in  prepossessions  and  affinity  with  which 
they  encounter  the  particular  book  and  its  subject- 
matter,  and  hence  to  a  differing  capacity  for  sympathy 
with  the  writer.  If  what  an  author  has  written 
reaches  his  reader's  heart,  moves  him  to  better  thought 
and  action,  and  makes  the  responsive  chord  of  patriot- 
ism beat  quickly,  all  close  analysis  of  style  merges  in 
the  immediate  effect  produced.  Some  critics  have 
warm  feelings,  others  are  cold,  negative,  unresponsive, 
even  where  their  opinions  are  much  alike ;  some  flatter 
the  well-assured  only,  others  wish  to  extend  a  help- 
ing hand  to  new-comers.  "Live  and  let  live"  is  a 
good  reply  for  all  literary  writers  to  make  to  their 
critics.  The  patient  fruit  of  twenty  years'  thought 
and  study,  as  the  sage  Montesquieu  reminds  us,  is 
not  to  be  estimated  lightly  nor  dismissed  with  a 
cursor}^  glance.  Let  us  recall  modestly  the  instance 
of  Macaulay,  who,  after  his  splendid  success  and 
popularity,  looked  over  the  volumes  he  had  written, 
and,  owning  their  deficiencies  in  many  respects,  took 
final  courage  in  the  thought  that  he  might  after  all 
have  written  much  worse,  and  at  all  events  had  done 
something  with  his  pen  for  the  advancement  of 
learning. 

In  recalling  a  former  apology  for  my  literary  short- 
comings, ^  I  am  pleased  to  find  that  Gibbon,  the  writer 
of  history  whom  I  most  admire,  made  his  extensive 
work  his  own  original  product,  sending  his  own 
written  copy  to  the  press,  as  his  memoirs  inform  us, 

1  See  paper  on  "Literary  Industries." 


HISTORICAL   STYLE.  73 

without  external  aid  or  suggestion.  Yet  external 
aid  may  improve  particular  expressions;  Jefferson's 
draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  is  in  point, 
which  critical  debate  in  Congress  modified  into  a 
model  document  fit  for  immortahty.  High-sounding 
phrases,  such  as  a  fervid  mind  works  out  in  its  lonely 
chamber  when  excited  with  its  subject,  need  often  to 
be  pruned.  But  for  all  this  the  best  of  revisers  in 
the  long  run  is  the  writer  himself;  and  to  write  his- 
tory well  requires,  as  Jefferson  himself  has  observed 
so  fitly,  "a  whole  life  of  observation,  of  inquiry,  of 
labor  and  correction." 

A  few  observations  on  this  same  subject  of  his- 
torical style  I  would  ask  leave  to  offer  as  the  result 
of  my  own  matured  reflection.  First  of  all,  an 
author's  style  should  be  the  image  of  himself,  and  if 
it  exposes  him  instead  as  the  copyist  of  other  minds, 
it  must  fail  of  impressiveness.  A  literary  writer  need 
not  be  a  genius,  but  he  should  be  genuine  ;  he  should 
be  sincere  and  true  to  his  preconceived  purpose ;  he 
should  put  forward  his  stock  of  erudition  and  influ- 
ence, as  one  who  thinks  for  himself,  judges  for  him- 
self, seeks  the  truth,  and  writes  accordingly.  Carlyle 
was  not  perhaps  a  historian  in  his  breadth  of  judg- 
ment, but  he  wrote  on  historical  subjects  with  picto- 
rial skill ;  and  though  rough  and  impetuous  in  style, 
exaggerated  and  at  times  almost  hysterical,  he  deliv- 
ered his  message  as  one  who  felt  the  Deity  within, 
and  after  his  own  characteristic  method  was  pro- 
foundly effective.  He  wrote  in  rugged  earnest,  and 
the  world  believed  him  honest.  Emerson,  on  the 
other  hand,  a  contemporary  and  friend,  who  harmon- 
ized Avith  Carlyle  in  many  ways,  was  in  concrete 
expression  the  antipodes.  The  calm  mood  of  the 
Greek  philosopher  suited  his  own  more  tranquil  con- 


74  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

tact  with  life ;  he  equally  was  in  earnest  and  true  to 
himself  5  but  his  method  was  to  string  pearls  of 
thought  together  in  apothegms.  Was  this  smooth 
composition  in  a  literary  style?  Yet  many  writers 
may  well  have  envied  Emerson's  literary  influence. 
Among  American  statesmen  famed  for  their  mastery 
of  expression,  the  clear  and  peremptory  diction  of 
Hamilton  in  his  correspondence  stands  in  marked 
contrast  with  Jefferson's  graceful  and  philanthropic 
flow;  Calhoun  and  Webster  could  no  more  have 
exchanged  in  debate  their  respective  methods  of 
oratory  than  their  political  views  or  their  strikingly 
different  physical  frames.  Yet  each  and  all  of  these 
men,  and  many  more  who  might  readily  be  men- 
tioned for  illustration,  found  scope  for  a  wide  popular 
impression  because  the  style  of  each  was  appropriate 
to  the  individual  and  characterized  him;  not  one  of 
them  was  weak  enough  to  model  himself  after  a 
contemporary. 

Next,  to  borrow  the  advice  of  our  admirable 
Prescott,  whose  literary  taste  was  exquisite,  one 
should  chiefly  "be  engrossed  with  the  thought  and 
not  with  the  fashion  of  expressing  it."  For  the  chief 
thing  after  all  in  effective  writing  is  to  put  clearly  the 
idea  intended.  Private  and  familiar  letters  often 
exceed  in  interest  the  formal  ones  more  sedulously 
composed,  because  there  is  more  of  a  person's  plain 
self  in  them,  and  moreover  a  pith  and  directness  that 
shows  the  writer  to  be  intent  upon  imparting  what  he 
has  to  say.  And  the  same  holds  true  of  familiar 
conversation  with  those  you  know  intimately  enough 
to  speak  as  the  heart  prompts  you.  Contrast,  for 
instance,  as  printed  in  the  same  volumes,  the  confi- 
dential family  letters  of  our  second  President  with  his 
ceremonious  official  responses  which  exchanged  lofty 


HISTORICAL  STYLE.  75 

platitudes;  and  yet  John  Adams  was  a  forcible 
writer.  We  might  compare  many  a  scholar's  chance 
notes  jotted  down,  while  he  was  warmly  pursuing  his 
facts,  with  the  stately  composition  he  afterwards 
elaborated  for  the  printer,  and  we  should  see  that  the 
preparatory  work,  however  hasty,  was  often  in  point 
of  readableness  superior  because  he  was  not  engrossed 
with  the  expression.  "  Tacitus, "  once  remarked  Dr. 
Johnson,  "seems  rather  to  have  made  notes  for  an 
historical  work  than  to  have  written  a  history ;  "  but 
for  all  that,  among  the  world's  historians  Tacitus 
ranks  with  the  greatest;  and  deservedly  so,  assuming 
that  his  notes  were  accurate. 

It  has  been  said  of  some  great  English  statesman 
whose  style  was  pellucid  and  forcible  —  I  think  it  was 
Cobden  —  that  he  would  formulate  carefully  the  sub- 
stance of  what  he  had  to  express  and  then  express  it 
in  the  first  words  that  occurred  to  him.  Many  a  bright 
man  tells  well  the  tale  of  his  own  personal  adventure, 
since  he  has  only  to  renew  his  sensations  and  describe 
them  with  effect,  whereas  to  throw  one's  self  into 
another's  sensations  and  reproduce  them  well  requires 
a  certain  sympathetic  creativeness.  In  either  case 
one  should  be  intent  upon  the  symptoms  and  due 
sequence  and  keep  to  his  narrative.  Clear  thinking 
and  clear  expression  go  naturally  together. 

But  all  this  we  may  fairly  qualify  by  observing 
further  that  expression,  to  be  adequate,  requires 
much  training,  like  skill  in  any  physical  pursuit. 
For  the  choice  and  command  of  language,  as  Gibbon 
well  tells  us,  is  the  fruit  of  exercise.  There  is  no 
perfection  in  nature  without  skill.  In  art,  not 
chance,  lies  true  ease  in  writing,  as  the  poet  says; 
by  which  I  understand  is  meant  that  art  which  has 
attained  to  something  of  the  perfection  of  a  second 


76  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

nature.  The  musician,  the  dancer,  the  gymnast,  the 
actor,  the  consummate  orator,  moves  us  deejjly  because 
he  strains  after  nothing,  but  in  his  higher  plane  seems 
perfectly  natural ;  his  grace,  his  strength,  his  power  to 
interpret  and  apply,  is  but  the  superior  endowment 
which  incessant  training  has  made  supreme.  The  man 
who  guides  you  among  the  high  mountain  summits 
has  lived  and  lingered  among  them  most  of  his  life. 
Compare  Shakespeare's  earlier  and  later  plays  and 
you  will  see  how  the  imagination,  at  first  so  labored 
in  its  expression,  embodied  its  rich  ideas  in  his,  prime 
as  freely  as  the  pen  could  move.  Daniel  Webster's 
compacted  power  of  statement,  simple  as  it  seems, 
was  the  result  of  long  effort  and  experience ;  and  with 
all  Clay's  impassioned  imagery  which  appealed  so 
strongly  to  the  heart,  we  cannot  doubt  that,  sponta- 
neous as  he  appeared,  he  was  a  most  carefully  trained 
orator.  Public  speaking  and  the  writing  of  public 
history  are  closely  allied ;  and  if  in  either  pursuit  the 
utterance  finds  real  dignity,  it  is  invariably  because 
study  and  sustained  effort  have  lifted  one  to  a  higher 
plane  of  intellectual  life,  so  that  in  his  greatest  mood 
grandeur  of  expression  comes  from  grandeur  of 
feeling. 

Elegant  extracts,  quotations  kept  in  a  castor  to  be 
peppered  over  one's  composition  so  as  to  give  an 
affected  spice  of  learning  and  loftiness,  I  hold  in  little 
estimation.  But  to  feel  the  stir  in  your  soul  of  the 
noble  passages  remembered  which  others  have  written 
is  quite  another  matter.  It  is  the  memory  of  such 
passages,  of  bosom-lines,  of  past  fables  or  fancies, 
which  well  up  in  the  thoughts  while  one  is  writing, 
and  whose  verification  may  be  left  for  another  time, 
that  may  well  mingle  with  his  own  composition. 
Burke  for  a  prose  writer,   Milton  for  a  poet,  have 


HISTORICAL   STYLE.  11 

formulated  grand  and  inspiring  ideas  and  images  that 
may  well  lie  slumbering  in  your  recollection  until  the 
glow  of  solitary  writing  calls  them  from  the  inner 
chamber  of  the  brain.  What  critic  but  a  stupid  one 
would  take  Webster  to  task  for  having  paraphrased 
"  Paradise  Lost "  in  so  many  of  his  most  eloquent 
passages,  instead  of  reciting  by  lengthy  verse  ?  That 
great  master  of  speech  knew  that  eloquence  lay  in 
impetuous  imagery  and  not  in  the  display  of  pedantry ; 
hence  when  he  quoted  at  all  it  was  rather  by  preg- 
nant phrase  or  allusion  than  by  rote.  We  writers, 
knowing  wherein  our  literary  work  shall  consist,  may 
gain  skill  likewise  by  the  study  and  absorption  of 
master  composers,  master  passages,  which  stir  us  to 
our  best.  And  in  perfecting  our  own  individual 
style  of  literary  composition  let  us  not  only  observe 
the  idioms,  the  construction  of  sentences,  the  general 
arrangement,  in  compositions  which  other  authors 
have  made  effective  and  which  affect  ourselves,  but 
enrich  our  own  vocabulary  besides  by  figurative  and 
appropria'te  words  and  epithets,  such  as  we  find  in 
our  casual  meditation  or  whenever  we  are  reading. 

There  is  somewhat  of  a  changing  fashion  in  literary 
style  just  as  there  is  in  dress  and  architecture.  A 
century  ago  or  more  men  seeking  intellectual  culture 
were  so  enamoured  of  the  "  Spectator  "  that  they  would 
transcribe  its  essa3'S  again  and  again  to  acquire  that 
elegant  grace  of  good  breeding  and  classical  persiflage 
which  gave  the  Addisonian  school  such  renown.  Dr. 
^  Johnson  set  the  fashion  of  pompous  and  well-balanced 
sentences,  which,  though  of  somewhat  ornate  and 
imposing  construction,  gave  doubtless  a  dignity  to 
high  discourse  in  prose.  For  a  choice  English  style, 
appropriate  to  orations  and  history,  I  doubt  whether 
anything  will  ever  prove  so  truly  classical  and  rich  as 


78  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS, 

that  nearer  the  simplicity  of  the  Elizabethan  age, 
with  which  Webster,  Irving,  and  Prescott  supplied 
our  literature  half  a  century  ago ;  though  the  preva- 
lent and  latest  fashion  tends  rather  to  pith  and  a 
familiar  directness  of  expression,  with  less  wealth  of 
reading  and  imagery  thrown  in,  and  more  of  the 
French  repartee  and  sententiousness.  Macaulay  intro- 
duced into  historical  writing  an  English  style  pecu- 
liarly his  own  which  many  have  admired,  —  that  of 
the  modern  reviewer,  brilliant,  dogmatic,  ephemeral 
in  its  application,  with  a  vast  outpouring  of  contem- 
porary detail  over  the  main  narrative,  and  a  glittering 
array  of  statistics  in  the  background.  He  has  bred 
many  imitators ;  as,  for  instance,  in  that  emphatic  "  I 
purpose"  of  the  first  paragraph  in  the  introductory 
chapter  which  unfolds  the  historian's  plan  to  the 
reader,  —  a  plan,  by  the  w^ay,  which  he  did  not  live 
to  fully  execute.  This  is  a  Homeric  introduction; 
and  Thucydides  (in  the  third  person,  however)  begins 
after  much  the  same  strain.  Such  an  opening  smacks 
of  egotism,  as  some  would  say ;  but  perhaps  it  marks 
rather  an  effort  to  dispense  with  the  usual  "  preface  " 
wdiich  other  solid  writers  employ  more  familiarly  for 
a  like  purpose. 

Imitation  is  always  a  sign  of  dependence  or  imma- 
turity ;  but  some  writers  are  so  imbued  with  its  spirit 
that  they  transport  their  shrine  from  one  object  of 
worship  to  another ;  and  authors  who  have  formed  a 
good  style  of  their  own  have  been  known  to  spoil  it 
by  coming  under  the  captivation  of  some  new  master. 
We  should  do  well  to  get  rid  of  such  subservience 
and  stand  on  our  own  pedestal.  But  when  one  is 
about  to  engage  in  some  great  literary  task  of  inven- 
tion, it  may  strongly  stimulate  him  to  explore  the 
production  of  some  master  mind  and  study  its  grasp 


HISTORICAL   STYLE.  79 

of  similar  work.  Prescott  prepared  himself  for  his  / 
famous  "Conquest  of  Mexico"  by  reading  other  nar- 
ratives of  individual  enterprise,  —  Voltaire's  "  Charles 
XII."  and  Livy's  "Hannibal."  Dignified  reading 
stirs  the  blood  for  dignified  composition ;  and  yet  to 
write  well  the  first  chapter  of  a  dignified  narrative 
costs  many  a  futile  effort  before  the  will  gains  domi- 
nance. Any  book  meant  to  be  popular  needs  most 
of  all  to  be  lively  and  entertaining ;  but  for  all  that 
it  need  not  fail  of  lofty  expression  when  developing 
the  serious  drama  of  governmental  life.  One  should 
make  good  use  of  the  concrete;  and  there  is  much 
choice  for  good  taste  to  exercise  among  historical 
material.  Look  for  facts  of  kindling  suggestion,  and 
for  such  as  illustrate  most  clearly  and  give  at  once 
most  vividly  a  deep  insight  into  the  age.  It  is  well 
for  the  narrator  to  strike  into  some  new  path;  to 
shape  an  easy  transition  from  one  scene  or  topic  to 
another,  so  as  not  to  fatigue  the  reader  by  keeping 
his  gaze  too  constantly  in  one  direction. 

As  to  one's  final  composition  for  the  press, 
Prescott's  idea  is  the  correct  one  :  that  the  only  rule 
is  to  write  with  freedom  and  nature,  even  with  occa- 
sional homeliness  of  expression,  and  with  such  variety 
in  alternating  long  and  short  sentences  (and  para- 
graphs too,  we  might  add)  as  may  be  essential  to  har- 
monious effect.  With  "Ferdinand  and  Isabella," 
his  first  v/ork,  this  conscientious  self-critic  was  not 
well  satisfied,  for  he  felt  that  he  had  elaborated  it  too 
carefully.  Indeed,  as  his  biography  shows  us,  he 
wrote  and  worked  over  those  two  maiden  volumes  for 
ten  years,  and  even  then  felt  almost  afraid  to  print 
until  his  father  told  him  it  would  be  rank  cowardice 
not  to  do  so.  "After  all,"  as  the  scholarly  Prescott 
well  concludes,  "  it  is  not  the  construction  of  the  sen- 


80  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

tence,  but  the  tone  of  the  coloring,  which  produces 
the  effect.  If  the  sentiment  is  warm,  lively,  forcible, 
the  reader  will  be  carried  along  without  much  heed 
to  the  arrangement  of  periods,  which  differs  exceed- 
ingly in  different  standard  writers.  Put  life  into  the 
narrative  if  you  would  have  it  take.  Elaborate  and 
artificial  fastidiousness  in  the  form  of  expression  is 
highly  detrimental  to  this.  A  book  may  be  made  up 
of  perfect  sentences  and  yet  the  general  impression  be 
very  imperfect." 

As  an  author's  habits  and  experience  in  composi- 
tion may  be  of  use  to  others,  let  me  follow  so  laudable 
an  example  and  state  my  own.  We  shall  admit  that 
a  creative  and  highly  imaginative  writer,  and  a  poet 
most  of  all,  must  wait  for  his  inspired  moments  and 
forge  his  best  work  in  the  heat  of  some  glowing  occa- 
sion. But  they  whose  intellectual  occupation  requires 
a  study  and  prolific  product  should  habituate  them- 
selves to  continuous  and  systematic  labor  of  the  pen 
and  make  inspiration  their  handmaid;  and  among 
such  steady  producers  we  may  reckon  the  preacher, 
the  journalist,  and  the  regular  historian.  Concentra- 
tion of  the  faculties,  where  imagination  must  be 
brought  into  play,  with  the  application  of  realities, 
and  a  full  style  is  of  consequence  as  well  as  a  flow- 
ing one,  is  gained  with  difficulty,  to  be  sure ;  but  habit 
triumphs  in  securing  it.  In  my  law  treatises,  which, 
inclusive  of  changes  in  the  various  editions,  cover 
some  six  thousand  ample  pages  of  text  and  notes,  and 
in  whose  treatment  clearness  in  the  development  of 
principles  was  of  the  chief  consequence,  I  have, 
with  rare  exceptions  in  certain  paragraphs,  sent  regu- 
larly my  first  and  only  draft  to  the  printer  as  written 
out  with  the  running  pen,  keeping  the  general  plan 
and  proportion  of  each  volume  well  in  view,  and  feel- 


HISTORICAL   STYLE,  81 

ing  my  own  way  from  one  legal  doctrine  to  another, 
so  as  to  impart  knowledge  by  induction  as  my  own 
mind  comprehended  it.  The  summary  of  law  or 
general  conclusion  on  any  topic  followed  thus  the 
exposition;  and  as  for  the  introductory  chapter  to 
each  volume,  so-called,  which  took  a  general  survey 
of  the  field,  I  usually  wrote  it  last,  gathering  perti- 
nent suggestions  as  the  main  investigation  proceeded. 
The  professional  mind  intent  upon  illustrating  and 
tracing  out  rules  and  their  subtle  limitations,  as 
applied  by  our  courts,  compares  and  comments  upon 
the  mass  of  cases,  and  may  leave  warmth  of  coloring 
to  take  care  of  itself,  so  long  as  he  applies  a  logical 
analysis  and  sound  sense  and  is  himself  interested. 

In  historical  composition,  on  the  other  hand,  one 
feels  the  greater  sublimity  and  scope  of  the  task,  in  a 
literary  aspect,  and  having  rules  less  ready  at  hand  to 
rest  upon  and  the  ipse  dixit  of  others,  trusts  less  to  his 
first  simple  expression.  Political  maxims,  metaphors, 
images,  comparisons,  troop  forth  from  the  mind  into 
the  pen,  and  obstruct  the  limpid  course  of  his  narra- 
tive. The  first  expression  needs  condensing  in  such 
a  case  even  after  it  is  clear.  Macaulay  himself  is 
recorded  as  having  reduced  a  day's  stretch  of  writing 
to  a  third  of  its  original  bulk^  and  most  historical 
manuscript,  I  apprehend,  will  bear  a  careful  revision 
and  compression.  I  formed  early  a  plan  for  such 
historical  composition  which  I  recommend  to  others. 
After  working  out  the  daily  task  I  would  hand  the 
manuscript  with,  its  rough  alterations  to  my  amanuen- 
sis, to  be  neatly  copied  on  good  paper  and  spread  out 
on  wide  lines  ready  for  my  final  revision.  This  copy 
was  laid  aside,  and  after  some  convenient  interval 
of  weeks  or  months,  I  would  turn  from  rough  com- 
position and  devote  a  good  space  of  time,  when  full 

6 


82  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

of  the  particular  chapter  and  in  a  glow  with  the  sub- 
ject, to  revising  a  batch  of  this  convenient  copy  with 
a  free  and  rapid  pen.  Manuscript  in  this  final  shape 
was  sent  to  be  printed.  To  print  and  read  proofs  of 
the  earlier  pages  while  you  are  still  composing  the 
later  ones  keeps  you  fully  absorbed  and  abreast  of 
your  main  subject,  and  urges  tlie  mind  on  to  harmo- 
nious completion.  One  is  pleased  to  find  that  so 
much  that  looked  bad  in  the  manuscript  beams  out 
neat,  concise,  and  attractive  from  the  printed  page. 
I  at  least  have  found  this  a  great  encouragement; 
and  yet  I  admit  it  is  not  safe  to  begin  the  press-work 
of  a  volume  while  you  are  composing  it,  unless  your 
good  health  and  spirits,  and  leisure  too,  may  be 
reckoned  upon. 

The  hardest  thing  of  all  in  such  responsible  compo- 
sition is  to  pitch  to  the  right  key  at  the  start  and 
sound  the  dominant  chord.  Even  Gibbon,  who  is 
said  to  have  acquired  such  final  ease  of  expression 
that  he  would  send  his  first  rough  and  unaided  copy 
to  press,  relates  that  he  experimented  long  before  he 
could  hit  the  middle  tone  between  a  dull  chronicle 
and  rhetorical  declamation.  His  first  chapter,  he 
tells  us,  was  composed  tln-ee  times  and  his  second 
twice,  —  an  experience,  I  dare  say,  which  many  later 
writers  of  a  similar  pursuit  have  repeated.  Another 
habit  which  he  formed,  and  which  I  think  worthy  of 
all  emulation,  was  that  of  arranging  well  in  his  mind 
the  facts  and  form  of  expression  before  he  sat  down 
to  the  desk.  It  surely  saves  much  manual  labor  to 
think  before  you  take  up  the  pen.  At  the  close  of 
each  day's  task,  and  while  the  mind  is  still  excited, 
you  are  likely  to  discern  a  clew  to  the  next  day's 
commencement,  or  some  better  expression  of  what 
you  have  just  written;  and  in  either  case  you  might 


HISTORICAL   STYLE.  83 

jot  down  a  memorandum.  Rumination  on  a  quiet 
afternoon's  walk  will  aid  you  to  memorize  materials 
and  give  them  some  sort  of  shape  for  the  next  day's 
pages ;  and  after  a  peaceful  night's  rest  such  details 
as  you  may  have  scanned  or  thought  over  group 
themselves  so  fairly  that  you  enter  your  morning 
study  sufficiently  advanced  in  thought  to  begin  the 
new  day's  work  intelligently  and  in  a  becoming 
frame  of  mind.  It  is  better  to  guide  your  thoughts 
thus  gently  into  the  right  channel  than  to  attempt  to 
force  them  at  command  in  your  study-chair,  with  pen 
in  hand  and  eyes  rolling  idly  to  seek  that  spontaneous 
inspiration  which  does  not  descend. 

There  is  one  thing,  however,  which  it  seems  to  me 
that  every  author  should  observe  who  hopes  to  build 
with  success  the  lofty  prose.  He  must  aid  the 
triumph  of  continuity  of  thought  by  keeping  con- 
tinuity itself  down  to  a  reasonable  span.  Whether 
by  pure  recreation  or  by  changing  the  mental  move- 
ments, he  should  give  his  brain  all  the  relaxation  it 
regularly  needs.  Some  great  historians  have  risen 
with  the  sun  and  lighted  their  Avinter  fire  while  their 
household  slept :  and  at  all  events  the  morning  hours 
which  end  with  noon  seem  to  me  decidedly  the  best 
for  smooth  writing,  because  the  mind  comes  fresh  and 
recuperated  to  its  toil.  But  whatever  hours  or  time 
of  the  day  one  may  prefer,  he  should  fix  his  routine 
and  hold  fast  to  it.  Nor  should  he  under  any  cir- 
cumstances give  more  than  three  or  four  consecutive 
hours  of  each  day  to  real  intellectual  composition. 
For  the  rest  of  one's  daily  course  of  work,  be  it 
longer  or  shorter,  let  him  examine  proof-sheets, 
attend  to  his  business  affairs,  study  materials  or 
collect  and  arrange  tliem,  and  keep  up  his  correspond- 
ence.    For  those  of  us  mature  mortals  not  of   iron 


84  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

constitution,  a  full  third  of  every  day  belongs  to  out- 
of-door  exercise,  light  reading,  and  social  intercourse, 
and  another  third  to  sleep.  The  mind  that  moves 
steadily  on,  oppressed  by  no  spasms  of  exertion  and 
no  worry,  accomplishes  far  more  in  the  end  than  that 
which  races  recklessly  on  unchecked  and  then  suc- 
cumbs to  over-effort.  And  even  for  our  intellectual 
hours  it  is  well,  as  my  personal  experience  convinces 
me,  to  turn  from  one  mental  employment  to  another  ; 
to  vary  composition  with  study  and  note-taking ;  and 
to  compose,  if  one  may  learn  to  do  so,  in  different 
places  of  abode  and  among  different  local  surround- 
ings, as  where  one  changes  from  his  winter  to  his 
summer  home,  from  the  roar  and  rush  of  city  life  to 
the  birds  and  the  green  pines.  The  brightest  intel- 
lect fades  and  flickers  out  where  the  will  has  abused 
it  5  just  as  the  diamond  itself,  which  is  after  all  but  a 
crystallization,  dissolves,  when  we  are  foolish  enough 
to  apply  the  blow-pipe,  into  the  same  dross  as  common 
charcoal. 


LAFAYETTE'S  TOUR  IN   1824. 

Lafayette's  final  visit  to  the  United  States,  in 
1824-25,  was  in  two  aspects  most  remarkable.  A 
venerated  hero  returned  after  an  absence  of  full  forty 
years,  to  see  our  prosperous  nation  enjoying  in  peace 
the  independence  in  whose  cause,  when  first  he  stood 
on  this  soil,  his  sword  was  drawn.  And  this  hero 
was  himself  a  foreign  nobleman;  one  who  in  youth 
had  so  generously  given  of  his  treasures  and  his 
blood  to  the  American  people  as  to  seem  an  American 
by  adoption;  and  who  yet  became  afterward  identi- 
fied, in  the  prime  of  manhood,  with  the  cause  of 
liberty  in  his  own  native  land,  as  the  conspicuous, 
perhaps  the  only,  revolutionary  leader  of  France  of 
those  times  whose  record  left  nothing  to  blush  for. 
A  guest  like  this  no  nation  was  ever  likely  to  enter- 
tain a  second  time.  The  splendor  of  Lafayette's 
later  reputation  in  the  old  hemisphere  heightened  his 
earlier  renown  in  the  new.  His  whole  life  had  been 
consecrated  to  the  cause  of  liberty  and  human  rights. 
Republicanism  itself  was  ennobled  when  one  so  illus- 
trious could  be  claimed  as  friend  and  father. 

Xo  wonder,  then,  that  on  Lafayette's  return  to  the 
United  States,  after  so  long  an  absence,  the  heart  of 
this  whole  people  was  poured  out  in  salutation.  To 
use  Clay's  felicitous  expression,  it  seemed  a  realiza- 
tion of  that  vain  wish  that  the  patriot-father  might 

Eeprinted  from  10  Magazine  of  American  History,  243  (1883). 


86  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

revisit  his  country  after  death,  and  contemplate  the 
intermediate  changes  which  time  had  wrought.  But 
that  figure  of  speech  was  inadequate;  for  the  man 
who  now  revisited  America,  and  stood  in  the  midst 
of  posterity,  was  not  like  the  risen  dead,  but  rather 
as  some  long-absent  champion,  who,  leaving  America 
free,  had  gone  out  to  liberate  new  worlds.  There 
had  been  no  grave,  no  oblivion,  to  close  over  the 
patriot  in  this  instance,  but  the  bond  of  sympathy 
which  united  this  people  and  their  benefactor  had 
remained  constantly  unbroken.  Seas  had  divided, 
but  absence  made  hearts  fonder. 

The  season  of  his  arrival  was  most  propitious  for 
thus  pledging  anew  this  most  precious  of  interna- 
tional friendships.  Our  second  war  with  Great 
Britain  had  in  its  happy  termination  secured  a  per- 
manent confidence  at  home  and  abroad  in  American 
institutions,  and  divorced  the  United  States  forever 
from  Europe.  Under  the  long  and  eminently  prudent 
administration  of  Monroe,  now  drawing  to  its  peaceful 
close,  our  people  enjoyed  a  constantly  growing  pros- 
perity. What  they  remembered  of  dangers  past, 
served  most  of  all  to  endear  the  recollections  of  the 
great  founders  of  this  republic,  their  sufferings  and 
sacrifices.  The  memories  of  '76  were  peculiarly 
tender;  battle  monuments  had  been  planned  and 
liberal  provision  made  for  aged  survivors  of  the 
revolutionary  struggle.  Children  refused  to  nourish 
the  old  party  feuds  of  their  parents ;  we.  had  ceased 
to  be  partisans  of  England  or  France ;  in  politics  we 
were  all  Americans  and  republicans.  Those  leading 
spirits  of  the  late  momentous  half-century  of  war, 
hatred  and  bloodshed,  were  disappearing.  George 
III.  and  Bonaparte  had  recently  died,  within  a  few 
months    of    one    another.      The    few    survivors    of 


LAFAYETTE'S  TOUR  IN  1824.  87 

American  independence  who  lingered  on  the  scene 
inspired  reverence,  but  they  had  ceased  to  participate 
actively  in  affairs.  Monroe  was  of  necessity  the  last 
President  of  the  United  States  identified  with  the 
revolutionary  epoch.  And  Lafayette  himself,  once 
the  young  companion  of  Washington,  had  now 
become  the  sole  surviving  general  officer  of  Washing- 
ton's immortal  army. 

In  honoring  Lafayette  thus  publicly  our  govern- 
ment appears  to  have  irritated,  willingly  enough, 
though  not  purposely,  the  Bourbon  family,  who  once 
more  (for  a  brief  spell  as  events  proved)  occupied  the 
throne  of  France.  Congress  at  the  same  session,  in 
fact,  which  opened  with  that  celebrated  Presidential 
message  announcing  what  has  since  been  styled  the 
"Monroe  Doctrine,"  passed  its  resolution  of  February 
4,  1824,  complimentary  to  Lafayette,  which,  in  view 
of  his  intended  visit,  authorized  a  national  ship  to 
bring  him  over.  Our  new  minister  to  France,  James 
Brown,  bore  to  Lafayette  almost  simultaneously  an 
autograph  letter  from  the  President  which  made  a  like 
offer,  and  assured  the  marquis  of  the  sincere  attach- 
ment of  the  whole  American  nation  and  their  ardent 
desire  to  see  him  once  more  in  the  United  States. 
Monroe's  timely  protest  against  any  further  extension 
of  Europe's  political  systems  to  the  American  conti- 
nent, had  meantime,  in  connection  with  England's 
disfavor,  operated  to  check  the  scheme  which  P'rance 
and  the  "  Holy  Alliance  "  meditated,  at  the  fall  of 
Cadiz,  for  subjugating  the  Spanish- American  repub- 
lics and  restoring  the  rule  of  royalty.  Loyal  to  the 
principles  he  had  always  maintained,  Lafayette  had 
of  late  incurred  the  resentment  of  Louis  XVIII.  by 
speeches  opposing  the  government  policy  in  the 
French   chamber   of   deputies.     A   corrupt   ministry 


S8  HISTOEICAL  BRIEFS. 

now  succeeded  in  removing  liim  from  the  national 
representation,  and  Lafayette  was  left  free  to  accept 
his  invitation  to  America.  While  offering  no  con- 
straint upon  his  movements,  either  in  departing  or 
returning,  the  French  government,  nevertheless,  by 
means  of  its  police  and  gendarmes,  checked  the  public 
expressions  of  love  and  gratitude  which  Lafayette's 
fellow-countrymen  would  eagerly  have  rendered. 

Lafayette's  star  had  risen  and  sunk  repeatedly 
with  the  vicissitudes  of  France,  and  the  time  now 
approached  when,  the  Bourbons  finally  dethroned, 
this  veteran  soldier  of  freedom  would  once  more  be 
worthily  trusted  by  his  countrymen.  But  in  the 
mean  time,  and  while  in  temporary  disgrace,  the 
opportunity  was  offered  for  visiting  the  United 
States,  and  accordingly  Lafayette  came. 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  set  forth  the  narrative  of 
Lafayette's  memorable  tour.  The  main  incidents  of 
the  journey  are  well  preserved  in  the  published  jour- 
nal of  Levasseur,  Lafayette's  private  secretary,  and  in 
American  newspapers  of  the  day,  particularly  "  Niles's 
Register."  Quincy,  in  his  "Figures  of  the  Past," 
well  describes  Lafayette's  visits  to  Boston.  The  hero 
traversed  every  State  and  every  section  of  this  Union, 
and  wherever  he  went  he  was  welcomed  with  love  and 
respect.  His  health  and  his  spirits  improved  almost 
constantly,  and  but  one  accident,  and  that  hardly  a 
serious  one  as  to  personal  consequences,  —  the  sink- 
ing of  a  steamboat  on  the  Ohio,  —  interrupted  the 
progress  of  the  nation's  guest. 

What  I  wish  in  this  paper  is  to  state  some  historical 
facts  connected  with  Lafayette's  tour,  which  are  not 
generally  known,  and  which  I  have  gathered  from 
some  unpublished  correspondence,  chiefly  among  the 
Monroe  and  Gouverneur  manuscripts. 


LAFAYETTE'S  TOUR  IN  182^.  89 

The  general  impression  has  been  that  Lafayette's 
visit  to  the  United  States  was  mutually  intended  for 
his  pleasure  and  the  public  gratification,  and  for  no 
more.  This  view,  however,  is  not  strictly  correct. 
True,  there  was  no  special  political  significance 
attached  to  the  tour,  though  this  idea  some  French- 
men entertained  at  the  time,  imagining  that  some 
plan  of  conquest  was  on  foot  in  which  he  was  to  bear 
a  part.  True,  too,  that  Lafayette's  long-cherished 
wish  to  revisit  the  scenes  of  his  youthful  exploits  had 
of  late  been  constantly  reciprocated  by  the  American 
press  and  his  private  American  correspondents.  But 
in  the  present  instance  our  administration  was  tacitly 
pledged  to  bestow  upon  the  last  of  the  illustrious 
revolutionary  leaders  some  tangible  proof  of  the  public 
gratitude,  such  as,  it  was  well  understood,  he  had 
good  reason  to  demand.  Lafayette  was  far  from 
affluent  at  this  time,  and  the  loss  of  royal  favor 
involved  a  jjrivate  sacrifice  to  one  of  his  rank.  He, 
a  stranger  to  these  colonies,  and  owing  us  nothing, 
had  in  our  hour  of  peril  voluntarily  expended  from 
his  own  means,  sacrificed  his  ease,  shed  his  blood, 
and  risked  his  life  in  our  service.  As  a  revolutionary 
officer,  he  was  entitled  to  public  lands,  and  having, 
in  fact,  received  a  specific  grant  from  Congress  at 
the  annexation  of  Louisiana,  the  location  made  by  his 
agent  in  that  territory  near  New  Orleans  proved  to 
be  in  conflict  with  some  earlier  grants.  Respecting 
that  claim,  Lafayette  appears  to  have  been  in  corre- 
spondence with  Edward  Livingston,  who  had  recently 
been  elected  to  Congress  from  Louisiana,  and  under- 
stood the  embarrassments  which  had  arisen.  Hence 
President  Monroe,  and  men  prominent  in  influence 
with  his  administration,  becoming  acquainted  with 
Lafayette's  pecuniary  affairs,  encouraged  him  in  his 


90  HISTORICAL   BRIEFS. 

half-formed  purpose  of  coming  to  this  country,  at  the 
same  time  treating  the  claimant  with  the  utmost  tact. 

The  greatest  delicacy  was  shown  in  all  the  arrange- 
ments prepared  for  Lafayette.  And  thus  was  it  that, 
returning  to  America  in  the  modest  expectation  of, 
perhaps,  honorable  attentions,  he  found  at  once,  on 
his  first  landing  in  New  York,  a  whole  community's 
gratitude  to  be  his  welcome.  Where,  indeed,  could 
one  better  be  than  in  the  bosom  of  a  family  like  this  ? 
So  astonished  was  he,  so  overcome,  to  find  a  great 
demonstration  made  for  him  where  he  had  expected 
to  land  quietly  and  engage  private  lodgings,  that  his 
eyes  flowed  with  tears,  and,  violently  pressing  both 
hands  to  his  heart,  he  exclaimed,  "It  will  burst!" 
But  the  same  public  demonstrations  which  greeted 
Lafayette  on  his  arrival  at  New  York  were  exhibited 
wherever  else  he  went. 

In  the  course  of  some  fourteen  months  he  traversed 
the  whole  country,  visiting  every  State  in  the  Union 
and  all  the  leading  cities,  and  received  everywhere 
the  same  sincere  token  of  reverence  and  affection, 
though  the  characteristic  expression  might  differ. 
The  nation's  guest  was  felt  to  be  the  people's  friend. 
With  chief  magistrates,  national.  State,  and  civic,  to 
perform  the  honors  on  their  own  behalf,  the  great 
body  of  American  citizens  themselves  constituted  his 
host.  They  took  Lafayette  into  their  own  keeping, 
carried  him  from  place  to  place,  and  feasted  and 
applauded  him  as  long  as  he  would  remain.  The 
wish,  expressed  on  many  a  public  occasion  and 
cheered,  was  that  he  would  become  at  length  an 
American  citizen,  and  end  his  days  here.  When  at 
last  he  re-embarked  for  France,  the  round  of  hospi- 
talities had  been  by  no  means  exhausted,  and  many 
invitations  were  of  necessity  declined. 


LAFAYETTE'S   TOUR  IN  1824-  91 

The  tacit  pledge  of  Congress,  that  the  honor  paid 
Lafayette  should  not  be  an  empty  one,  was  not  for- 
gotten. By  an  act  approved  on  the  28th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1824,  the  sum  of  ^200,000  was  voted  him, 
together  with  a  township  of  land,  to  be  located  on 
any  of  the  unappropriated  public  domain,  in  consid- 
eration of  his  services  and  sacrifices  in  the  war  of  the 
Revolution.  This  munificent  grant  readily  passed 
both  houses  by  a  vote  unanimous.  A  joint  com- 
mittee waited  upon  him  mth  a  copy  of  the  act,  asking 
him  in  behalf  of  Congress  to  permit  this  partial  dis- 
charge of  the  national  obligation.  Taken  by  surprise 
as  he  was  by  this  munificent  donation,  Lafayette 
could  but  accept  it  under  the  circumstances.  Not 
only  did  the  voice  of  the  nation  sustain  Congress  in 
its  generous  action,  but  several  of  the  States,  Virginia, 
New  York,  and  Maryland,  for  instance,  would  have 
added  their  own  largess,  had  not  Lafayette  himself 
repressed  their  generosity. 

If  Lafayette's  appearance  somewhat  surprised,  he 
did  not  long  disappoint,  the  spectator.  He  presented 
a  fine,  portly  figure,  nearly  six  feet  high;  his 
weight  of  years  was  lightly  worn,  and  his  only 
apparent  infirmity  was  a  slight  lameness,  resulting 
from  his  old  wound  at  Brandy  wine.  That  lithe, 
graceful  youth,  with  elastic  step  and  joyous  face, 
whose  bronze  image  is  passed  by  New  Yorkers  of  the 
present  day  in  Union  Square,  had,  indeed,  vanished; 
yet  Lafayette's  appearance  astonished  by  its  vigorous 
contrast  with  those  bent  and  gray-haired  veterans 
who  saluted  him  as  their  compatriot.  This  was  partly 
the  effect  of  French  art,  though  more  was  owing  to 
Lafayette's  French  vivacity  and  perennial  good- 
nature. Looking  closely  upon  his  face,  one  saw 
traces  of  his  sufferings ;  and  Quincy  tells  us  that  the 


92  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

brown  wig  which  set  low  on  his  forehead,  concealing 
some  of  his  wrinkles,  did  yeoman's  service  to  one 
who  rode  so  constantly  in  an  open  carriage,  bowing 
with  uncovered  head.  The  old  Indian  chief,  Red 
Jacket,  who  had  been  with  Lafayette  in  1784,  frankly 
expressed  his  amazement  that  time  should  have  left  the 
general  so  fresh  a  countenance  and  so  hairy  a  scalp. 

We  must  remember,  too,  that  Lafayette's  American 
renown  came  to  him  remarkably  early  in  life.  He 
was  scarcely  twenty  years  of  age  when  he  bore  to 
Washington  a  major-general's  commission,  which 
Congress  had  conferred  upon  a  titled  foreigner  only 
as  a  mark  of  honorary  distinction,  but  which  soon 
became  the  credentials  of  his  active  service. 

What,  one  may  inquire,  were  the  strongest  impres- 
sions produced  upon  Lafayette  himself  by  this  Ameri- 
can visit,  so  impressive  to  his  American  hosts?  Of 
these,  some  indications  are  to  be  found  in  Lafayette's 
correspondence  with  American  friends  after  his  return 
home,  as  also  in  memorials  of  the  tour  which  others 
have  preserved.  Lafayette  himself  appears  never  to 
have  summed  up  the  results  of  his  experience  here, 
nor  could  he  have  been  expected  to  do  so.  That  he 
was  both  delighted  and  surprised  with  the  constant 
enthusiasm  of  his  reception  cannot  be  doubted.  These 
honors  from  the  land  of  his  early  exploits  were  sub- 
stantial honors  too.  For  himself,  personally,  it  was 
a  memorable  episode  in  an  eventful  life ;  a  relief  from 
oppressive  cares;  a  vacation  tour  during  which  old 
age  revelled  among  the  scenes  and  recollections  of  a 
well-spent  youth,  and  where  he  could  forget  the 
vexations  and  responsibilities  of  official  station.  Here 
he  was  truly  a  benefactor;  a  successful  philanthro- 
pist; a  father  visiting  a  distant  son  well  established 
in  his  own  home. 


LAFAYETTE'S  TOUR  IN  18^4.  93 

Lafayette  was  at  heart  a  consistent  republican,  and 
a  man  of  liberal  principles,  sympathizing  fully  with 
our  political  institutions.  The  nature  of  our  govern- 
ment he  had  long  intelligently  comprehended.  But 
as  a  Frenchman,  and  with  reference  to  preserving 
firmly  the  essential  liberties  of  his  own  countrymen, 
he  believed  that  a  constitutional  monarchy  was  the 
form  of  government  best  adapted  to  the  existing 
wants  of  France.  Of  the  sincerity  of  that  belief, 
already  demonstrated  on  one  signal  occasion,  he  was 
to  give  a  last  proof  soon  after  his  return.  Hence 
American  institutions  afforded  Lafayette,  at  this 
time,  no  occasion  for  minute  study;  for  the  bent  of 
his  mind  was  practical,  and  for  his  generation,  at 
least,  France  had  done  with  broad  experiments  of 
self-government.  Holding  these  views,  Lafayette 
carried  nevertheless  a  heart  whose  generous  emotions 
had  not  been  stifled  by  the  hard  vicissitudes  of  ex- 
perience, and  though  himself  of  aristocratic  rank,  he 
felt  a  personal  interest  in  mankind  as  brothers.  The 
example  of  the  American  republic  seemed  precious 
in  his  estimation  beyond  any  immediate  reckoning. 
"  Perpetual  union  among  the  United  States, "  was  his 
toast  on  one  occasion:  "it  has  saved  us  in  our  times 
of  danger;  it  will  save  the  world." 

Gratitude  to  America  for  its  own  gratitude  was 
doubtless  the  feeling  predominant  on  this  tour. 
Next,  the  rapid  development  of  the  American  nation, 
under  its  constitutional  government,  doubtless  im- 
pressed him :  the  immense  extension  of  our  terri- 
torial area  since  the  revolutionary  war;  the  threefold 
increase  of  population;  the  rapid  development  of  the 
West;  the  original  number  of  the  States  nearly 
doubled.  Here,  too,  he  saw  that  every  one  had  his 
pursuit  in  life,  so  that  many  who  accosted  him  seemed 


94  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

to  wonder  how  a  French  nobleman  supported  himself. 
More  than  once  he  observed  chief  rulers  and  high 
dignitaries  travelling  without  peculiar  distinction;  a 
high  cabinet  officer,  who  had  served  in  European 
courts  besides,  preparing  his  bed  upon  the  saloon  floor 
of  a  crowded  steamboat ;  the  governor  of  a  State  pull- 
ing in  a  skiff  to  help  unload  a  sunken  vessel;  states- 
men often  seeming  to  receive  social  honors  as  secondary 
to  some  private  citizens.  The  only  time  during  his 
tour  that  Lafayette's  carriage  was  stopped  for  a  toll 
was  once  when  he  rode  with  the  President  of  the 
United  States.  But  the  universal  respect  for  law 
and  order  moved  him  to  admiration.  It  seemed  as 
if  the  largest  crowds  that  gathered  to  honor  his 
approach  had  resolved  not  to  disgrace  American 
institutions  in  the  eyes  of  their  fraternal  guest. 
Lafayette's  entrance  into  Philadelphia  caused  not  the 
slightest  disturbance  of  the  peace,  though  its  popu- 
lation of  120,000  souls  was  augmented  by  40,000 
strangers,  who  came  to  participate  in  the  rejoicings. 
Multitudes  huzzaed  that  day  in  the  streets  as  the 
procession  passed,  and  multitudes  at  night  walked 
the  streets  for  miles  to  witness  the  illuminations ;  and 
yet  there  was  found  no  need  of  increasing  the  police, 
nor,  as  the  mayor  announced,  was  a  single  complaint 
reported  the  next  morning. 

As  a  Frenchman  and  a  guest,  however,  Lafayette 
was  less  likely  to  draw  such  political  comparisons 
than  to  comment  upon  what  our  general  humanity 
inculcates.  Two  suggestions  which  he  made  in  a 
fatherly  way  from  this  latter  standpoint  deserve  our 
chief  remembrance.  They  related  to  prison  reform 
and  negro  emancipation,  and  were  addressed  frankly 
to  those  immediately  responsible  for  existing  systems 
and  capable  of  changing  them. 


LAFAYETTE'S  TOUR  IN  182^.  95 

Visiting  Philadelphia,  where  he  was  shown  a  new 
and  commodious  prison  nearly  finished,  on  the  plan  of 
solitary  confinement,  —  a  mode  of  punishment  which 
Pennsylvania  had  within  twenty  years  adopted  in  its 
fullest  extent,  —  Lafayette,  recalling  his  personal 
experience,  observed  that  solitary  confinement  was  a 
punishment  which  might  lead  to  madness,  and  by  no 
means,  in  his  own  case  at  least,  had  caused  a  refor- 
mation of  opinions. 

So,  too,  did  the  sincerity  of  Lafayette's  convictions 
on  the  subject  of  human  slavery  force  him  to  com- 
mend its  abolition  whenever  a  word  of  judicious 
counsel  might  aid  the  cause.  The  rapid  development 
of  New  York,  where  traces  of  the  former  existence  of 
this  institution  were  now  fast  disappearing,  he  placed 
in  sad  contrast  with  the  condition  of  other  Atlantic 
States  to  the  southward  where  the  evil  still  remained. 
His  heart  was  pained  by  the  exhibitions  of  human 
bondage  which  he  witnessed  at  the  South  just  after 
his  Northern  tour.  And  as  he  found  opportunity, 
while  in  Virginia,  he  discussed  the  delicate  problem, 
and  especially  when  visiting  the  ex-Presidents  Jeffer- 
son and  Madison,  never  failing  on  his  part  to  defend 
the  right  which  all  men,  without  exception,  have  to 
liberty.  Most  Virginians  with  whom  Lafayette  thus 
conversed  treated  his  suggestions  with  entire  courtesy ; 
they  frankly  condemned  the  principle  of  slavery,  and 
though  citing  strong  objections  to  a  general  and 
immediate  emancipation,  appeared  ready  to  rid  them- 
selves of  the  curse,  could  only  some  feasible  method 
be  shown. 

For  that  ancient  State  of  proud  revolutionary  tra- 
ditions and  illustrious  leaders,  Lafayette  undoubtedly 
felt  a  peculiar  tenderness,  with  perhaps  a  pang  of 
disappointment  at  its  present  condition.     There  re- 


96  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

posed  the  ashes  of  his  paternal  friend  and  exemplar, 
the  first  in  war  and  peace.  Jefferson,  too,  who  died 
soon  after  his  visit  to  Monticello,  was  a  beloved  com- 
patriot. The  later  survivors  of  the  famous  Virginian 
trio,  Madison  and  Monroe,  were,  and  continued  after 
his  return  to  France,  Lafayette's  cherished  corre- 
spondents. Hearing  in  later  years  that  Monroe  had 
been  struggling  with  poverty,  after  retiring  from 
public  station,  Lafayette  generously  offered  his  purse ; 
but  Monroe,  with  a  delicate  sense  of  honor,  refused 
to  be  thus  relieved. 

There  is  an  autograph  letter  among  the  Monroe 
papers  probably  never  published,  which  the  writer 
has  been  permitted  to  read,  written  from  Paris  in 
1829,  in  that  neat,  angular,  half -feminine  hand,  so 
characteristic  of  Frenchmen,  —  one  of  the  last  ever 
penned  by  Lafayette  to  his  Virginia  friends.  This 
letter  was  written  in  view  of  the  approaching  Virginia 
convention  of  that  year,  and  was  addressed  to  ex- 
President  Monroe  himself,  who  presided  at  that  con- 
vention. It  contains  Lafayette's  final  appeal  for 
bringing  Virginia  into  the  sisterhood  of  free  States. 
"  Oh,  how  proud  and  elated  I  would  feel,"  he  writes, 
"  if  something  could  be  contrived  in  your  convention 
whereby  Virginia,  who  was  the  fii^t  to  petition 
against  the  slave  trade  and  afterwards  to  forbid  it, 
and  who  has  published  the  first  declaration  of  rights, 
would  take  an  exalted  situation  among  the  promoters 
of  measures  tending  first  to  ameliorate,  then  gradually 
to  abolish,  the  slave  mode  of  labor."  Happily  might 
the  Old  Dominion  preserve  that  letter  in  a  golden 
frame  had  she  followed  voluntarily  his  disinterested 
advice. 


MONROE  AND   THE  RHEA  LETTER. 

The  Seminole  War  of  1817-18  was  hardly  worthy 
of  its  imposing  title,  so  far  as  concerned  the  belliger- 
ent parties  themselves  and  their  encounters;  but  in 
respect  of  the  political  controversies,  domestic  and 
international,  which  General  Jackson's  conduct  of 
that  war  provoked,  it  assumes  in  our  history  a  memo- 
rable importance.  Roving  Indians  from  East  Florida, 
a  province  which  Spain  at  that  time  held  by  a  feeble 
and  loosening  grasp,  approached  Fort  Scott  on  the 
Georgia  frontier,  surprised  a  boat-load  of  United 
States  troops  ^vith  their  wives  and  children,  who 
were  ascending  the  Appalachicola  River,  and  cruelly 
butchered  the  whole  party.  The  administration  at 
Washington,  on  receiving  the  startling  news,  ordered 
General  Jackson  to  the  front.  The  hero  of  New 
Orleans  displayed  his  customary  energy  and  prompt- 
ness. Having  raised  an  additional  force  of  volunteers, 
he  marched  rapidly  from  Nashville  to  the  southern 
frontiers,  and  drove  the  bloodthirsty  Seminoles  into 
Florida.  Pursued  to  St.  Mark's  after  a  slight 
encounter,  the  enemy  escaped  southward  into  their 
inaccessible  swamps,  and  in  less  than  six  months 
from  the  date  of  the  massacre  this  Indian  war  was 
over. 

But  Jackson  was  not  content  that  hostilities  should 
end  thus  easily.     Two  British  subjects  had  come  into 

Eeprinted  from  12  Magazine  of  American  History,  308  (1884). 

7 


98  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

his  hands,  Arbuthnot  and  Ambrister,  and  these, 
having  been  tried  by  drum-head  court-martial  on  the 
charge  of  giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy,  he 
caused  to  be  summarily  executed,  —  the  one  hanged 
and  the  other  shot.  Next,  turning  aside  from  the 
homeward  march,  he  captured  Pensacola,  as  he  had 
already  captured  St.  Mark's  against  the  protest  of 
the  Spanish  commander,  and  hoisted  the  stars  and 
stripes  in  place  of  the  Spanish  colors;  here  once 
more  alleging  that  the  king's  officers  thus  displaced 
had  instigated  the  Seminoles  to  make  war  over  the 
American  borders.  The  British  people  were  greatly 
incensed  at  what  they  called  the  murder  of  two 
fellow-countrymen;  and  as  Castlereagh  told  Minister 
Rush  there  would  have  been  a  war  over  this  "if  the 
ministry  had  but  held  up  a  finger; "  but  the  British 
ministry,  having  at  this  time  the  strongest  motives 
for  maintaining  cordial  relations  with  the  United 
States,  waived  apologies.  As  for  Spain,  King  Ferdi- 
nand betrayed  an  impotent  rage;  but  President 
Monroe  promptly  disavowed  General  Jackson's  acts 
and  restored  the  Spanish  posts,  at  the  same  time 
sustaining  in  the  main  our  general's  charges  of 
Spanish  complicity;  in  which  posture  of  affairs  the 
leading  European  powers  refused  to  espouse  Spain's 
quarrel,  and  the  king  after  much  hesitation  signed  a 
treaty  which  finally  ceded  the  Floridas  to  the  United 
States  for  $5,000,000  upon  stated  considerations. 
This  cession,  negotiations  for  which  had  been  pend- 
ing some  fifteen  years,  was  not  in  the  end  procured 
without  a  skilful  management  of  these  Seminole 
difficulties,  and  to  the  happy  result  Jackson's  rude 
exposure  of  the  imbecility  of  Spanish  domination 
doubtless  contributed. 

Not  less  memorable  is  the  Seminole  War  for  the 


MONROE  AND    THE  RHEA  LETTER.       99 

influence  which  it  came  to  exert  upon  the  internal 
politics  of  our  country.  Jackson's  summary  seizure 
of  the  Spanish  posts  was  a  popular  act,  and  such  he 
had  meant  it  to  be.  Our  people,  and  those  especially 
of  the  Western  States,  had  long  borne  with  impa- 
tience the  delays  of  a  fruitless  diplomacy,  confident 
all  the  while  that  in  order  to  obtain  a  full  settlement 
of  spoliation  claims,  old  and  new,  and  gain  title  to 
a  territory  once  paid  for,  as  to  West  Florida  at  least, 
when  Louisiana  was  purchased,  nothing  could  be 
easier  than  to  march  a  resolute  body  of  troops  into 
Florida,  dislodge  the  Spanish  garrisons,  and  take 
possession  in  the  name  of  the  United  States.  This 
Jackson  did  on  his  own  responsibility;  and  already 
the  most  conspicuous  man  of  the  age  among  our  mili- 
tary generals,  he  leaped  at  once  into  prominence  as  a 
candidate  for  the  next  presidency.  All  presidential 
candidates  in  that  day  belonged,  so  to  speak,  to  one 
party;  and  civilians  like  Crawford  and  Clay,  who 
themselves  were  ambitious  rivals  and  competitors  for 
the  succession,  committed  the  fatal  error  of  setting 
on  foot  a  Congressional  investigation ;  hoping  thereby, 
as  Jackson's  friends  have  claimed,  to  procure  a  public 
censure  and  crush  this  new  popular  favorite.  But 
the  President  himself  stood  firmly  by  the  general  at 
this  crisis,  as  also  did  Adams  and  Calhoun  of  the 
cabinet,  and  the  result  of  the  investigation  was  the 
utter  discomfiture  of  those  who  started  it,  Jackson 
becoming  a  stronger  and  more  formidable  candidate 
than  ever.  From  Jackson's  gratitude  the  Secretary 
of  War  presently  reaped  a  tangible  reward  in  his  own 
successful  advancement  to  the  vice-presidency;  but 
in  the  moment  of  his  highest  elation,  and  while  he 
reached  out  his  hand  for  the  chief  magistracy,  Calhoun 
received   a  fatal  stab    in  the  back.     Crawford,    his 


100  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

quondam  associate  and  bitter  enemy,  betrayed  to  the 
old  general  the  Cabinet  secrets  of  1818,  showing  that 
Calhoun  had  declared,  when  the  seizure  of  Pensacola 
was  announced,  that  Jackson  ought  to  be  court-mar- 
tialled.  Being  asked  to  explain,  Calhoun  sought  to 
excuse  himself.  All  the  papers  and  traditions  of  the 
Seminole  War  were  ransacked  for  his  justification; 
but  the  angry  President  remained  implacable,  and 
under  the  deadening  weight  of  Jackson's  displeasure 
Calhoun  with  his  national  aspirations  sank  as  in  a 
quicksand.  No  longer  influential  wath  the  mass  of 
national  voters,  he  devoted  his  commanding  talents 
thenceforth  to  the  philosophy  of  nullification,  to 
State  rights,  and  Southern  secession.  In  fine,  the 
Seminole  War  and  its  controversies  bore,  indirectly, 
no  slight  influence  in  producing  the  tremendous  civil 
conflict  of  1861. 

In  recalling  the  story  of  the  Seminole  War,  I  came 
upon  a  letter  of  General  Jackson's,  written  January 
6,  1818,  which  played  a  very  singular  part  in  the 
discussions  which  that  war  elicited.  I  print  it  in  the 
foot-notes,  as  it  appears  in  Parton's  "  Life  of  Jackson," 
with  the  essential  passage  denoted  by  italics.^     That 

1  This  letter  reads  as  follows.     See  2  Partou's  Life  of  Jackson,  433  : 

General  Jackson  to  President  Monroe. 

Nashville,  6 th  January,  1818. 
Sir  :  A  few  days  since  I  received  a  letter  from  the  Secretary  of 
War,  of  the  17th  ult.,  with  inclosures.  Your  order  of  the  19th  ult. 
through  him  to  Brevet  Major  General  Gaines  to  enter  the  territory  of 
Spain,  and  chastise  the  ruthless  savages  who  have  been  depredating 
on  the  property  and  lives  of  our  citizens,  will  meet  not  only  the  appro- 
bation of  your  country,  but  the  approbation  of  Heaven.  Will  you, 
hov/ever,  permit  me  to  suggest  the  catastrophe  tliat  might  arise  by 
General  Gaines'  compliance  with  the  last  clause  of  your  order  1  Sup- 
pose tlie  case  that  the  Indians  are  beaten :  they  take  refuge  either  in 
Pensacola  or  St.  Augustine,  which  open  their  gates  to  tliem ;  to  profit 


MONROE  AND    THE  RHEA  LETTER.     101 

passage  may  be  considered  as  the  text  of  the  present 
article,  my  object  being  to  Lay  before  the  public,  and 
I  may  confidently  say  for  the  first  time,  a  full  and 
true  narrative  as  to  what  for  convenience  I  shall  style 
"Jackson's  January  letter."  Parton,  in  his  "Life 
of  Andrew  Jackson,"  follows  Benton;  and  Benton, 
in  preparing  his  "Thirty  Years'  View,"  was  misled 
—  honestly,  no  doubt  —  by  a  lengthy  document  on 
the  subject  of  the  Seminole  War  which  he  found 
among  Andrew  Jackson's  posthumous  papers,  but 
whose   publication  Jackson  himself  never  positively 

by  his  victory,  General  Gaines  pursues  the  fugitives,  and  has  to  halt 
before  the  garrison  until  he  can  communicate  with  his  government. 
In  the  meantime  the  militia  grow  restless,  and  he  is  left  to  defend 
himself  by  the  regulars.  The  enemy,  Avith  the  aid  of  their  Spanish 
friends  and  Woodbine's  British  partisans,  or,  if  you  please,  with 
Aury's  force,  attacks  him.  What  may  not  be  the  result  ?  Defeat 
and  massacre.  Permit  me  to  remark  that  the  arms  of  the  United 
States  must  be  carried  to  any  point  within  the  limits  of  East  Florida, 
where  an  enemy  is  permitted  and  protected,  or  disgrace  attends. 

The  executive  government  have  ordered,  and,  as  I  conceive,  very 
properly,  Amelia  Island  to  be  taken  possession  of.  This  order  ought 
to  be  carried  into  execution  at  all  hazards,  and  simultaneously  the 
whole  of  East  Florida  seized,  and  held  as  an  indemnity  for  the  out- 
rages of  Spain  upon  the  property  of  our  citizens.  This  done,  it  puts 
all  opposition  down,  secures  our  citizens  a  complete  indemnity,  and 
saves  us  from  a  war  with  Great  Britain,  or  some  of  the  continental 
powers  combined  with  Spain.  This  can  be  done  without  implicating 
the  government.  Let  it  he  siynified  to  me  through  any  channel  {say 
Mr.  J.  Rhea),  that  the  possession  of  the  Floridas  would  be  desirable  to 
the  United  States,  and  in  sixty  days  it  will  he  accomplished. 

The  order  being  given  for  the  possession  of  Amelia  Island,  it 
ought  to  be  executed,  or  our  enemies,  internal  and  external,  will  use 
it  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  government.  If  our  troops  enter  the 
territory  of  Spain  in  pursuit  of  our  Indian  enemy,  all  opposition  that 
they  meet  with  must  be  put  down,  or  we  will  be  involved  in  danger 
and  disgrace. 

I  have  the  honor,  &c., 

Andrew  Jackson. 
Hox.  James  Moxroe, 

President  United  States, 


102  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

sanctioned.  Parton,  if  not  Benton  himself,  has  been 
puzzled  by  the  mysteries  involved  in  that  January 
letter.  Those  mysteries,  however,  are  solved  in  part 
by  the  later  published  volumes  of  that  most  valuable 
historical  work,  John  Quincy  Adams's  "Diary," 
though  no  one,  I  believe,  has  called  attention  to  the 
point;  and  they  are  essentially  cleared  by  the  testi- 
mony of  the  Monroe  manuscripts  now  in  possession 
of  the  government,  and  of  the  Gouverneur  papers 
which  are  still  held  in  Washington  by  the  last  of 
Monroe's  lineal  descendants.  I  believe  I  violate  no 
confidence  in  using  the  substance  of  their  contents 
for  the  purpose  of  this  narrative,  in  connection  with 
the  publications  I  have  referred  to,  well  knowing 
that  the  American  people  value  truth  and  justice  in 
history,  and  that  they  would  not  willingly  suffer  false 
imputations  to  tarnish  the  fame  of  an  honored  Presi- 
dent, who  has  reposed  more  than  fifty  years  in  the 
grave. 

Jackson's  January  letter,  it  is  perceived,  indicates 
on  the  general's  part  a  personal  wish  to  carry  the 
war  into  Spain  precisely  as  he  afterwards  did.  Heed- 
less, perhaps,  of  the  duplicity,  of  the  lawlessness  to 
which  such  a  course  must  have  committed  the  respon- 
sible Executive  of  the  United  States,  Jackson  urged 
Monroe  to  drop  only  a  sly  hint,  and  in  sixty  days  the 
Floridas  would  be  ours.  The  secret  channel  indicated 
was  through  John  Rhea,  better  known  to  statesmen  of 
the  day  as  "Johnny  Rhea,"  —  a  member  of  Congress 
for  many  years  from  Tennessee,  a  native  of  Ireland, 
a  man  never  of  much  reputation,  who  is  remembered 
in  history  only  as  one  of  Jackson's  constant  parasites. 
It  is  well  known  that  this  January  letter  was  written 
from  Nashville  before  Jackson  had  received  the 
marching  orders  which  were  already  on  their  way  to 


MONROE  AND    THE  RHEA  LETTER.     103 

him  from  Washington,  and  in  ignorance  of  their 
contents.  Those  orders  directed  him  to  proceed  to 
the  scene  of  war  and  take  command,  observing  the 
restrictions  already  imposed  on  his  predecessor. 
General  Gaines,  — restrictions  of  whose  import  Jack- 
son's own  letter  shows  that  he  was  already  apprised. 
In  other  words,  Jackson  might  cross  the  Florida  line, 
provided  the  hostile  Indians  could  be  reached  and 
punished  in  no  other  way;  but  on  no  account  was  he 
to  molest  or  threaten  a  Spanish  post ;  and  should  the 
enemy  find  refuge  within  a  Spanish  fortress,  he  was 
to  relinquish  the  pursuit  and  take  no  further  steps 
without  receiving  new  and  explicit  orders  from  the 
war  department.^ 

Jackson  was  resolute,  headstrong,  self-reliant,  dis- 
inclined to  obey  orders  from  any  one,  strongly  per- 
sistent in  his  own  views,  and  by  no  means  considerate 
toward  those  he  fought  or  argued  against.  Monroe, 
on  the  other  hand,  was  at  this  epoch,  as  all  accounts 
agree,  patient,  tolerant,  slow  in  reaching  conclusions, 
but  magnanimous  and  considerate,  —  an  Executive 
who  both  sought  counsel  and  encouraged  the  confi- 
dence of  his  counsellors ;  a  chief  magistrate  who  took 
just  and  comprehensive  views  of  public  policy,  who 
was  sensitive  that  all  his  official  acts  should  be  rightly 
performed,  and  as  a  man  the  soul  of  generous  honor. 
What  impression  would  such  a  private  letter  from  a 
commanding  general  have  been  likely  to  produce 
upon  the  mind  of  such  a  President,  under  circum- 
stances like  these  ?  Much  the  same,  we  may  imagine, 
as  McClellan's  famous  letter  on  the  slavery  question, 
written  while  engaged  in  his  Peninsular  campaign, 
produced  upon  President  Lincoln's  mind.  The  gen- 
eral had  meantime  received  his  military  orders  and 

1  See  2  Parton's  Jackson,  433. 


104  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

was  bound  to  pursue  them;  consequently,  personal 
advice  on  delicate  questions  of  a  political  character, 
whose  tendency  was  to  compromise  the  Chief  Execu- 
tive, would  be  weighed  but  not  discussed  by  the 
latter  at  such  a  juncture.  In  truth,  free  advice  from 
Jackson  was  nothing  new  to  Monroe;  he  had  been 
receiving  it  ever  since  his  election  to  the  presidency ; 
and,  appreciating  Jackson's  friendship  as  well  as  the 
originality  and  force  of  all  he  might  say,  he  had  con- 
stantly encouraged  him  to  speak  his  mind  freely,  but 
at  the  same  time  pursued  the  tenor  of  his  administra- 
tion after  his  own  deliberate  convictions. 

In  point  of  fact,  however,  Monroe  never  read  nor 
reflected  upon  Jackson's  January  letter  at  all  until 
after  Pensacola  had  fallen.  This  will  conclusively 
appear  in  the  course  of  the  present  narrative. 

For  historical  facts  one  should  trust  most  of  all  to 
contemporary  testimony.  Later  narratives,  solely 
derived  from  personal  recollection,  are  noi>  to  be 
depended  upon ;  for  not  only  do  events  fade  from  the 
memory  after  a  long  lapse  of  years,  but  they  are 
grouped  differently  as  viewed  in  the  prospect  or  the 
retrospect ;  important  links  may  in  time  have  disap- 
peared, while  the  bias  of  the  narrator  must  be  to 
make  the  sequence  of  anticipation  coincide  with  that 
of  actual  results,  —  a  state  of  things  which  rarely 
occurs  in  real  life.  Let  any  one  who  doubts  this  tell 
from  memory  the  story  of  his  own  personal  experi- 
ences, dating  ten  or  fifteen  years  back,  describing  the 
time,  the  persons,  the  surroundings,  and  the  impres- 
sions he  received,  and  then  compare  this  story  with 
the  details  recorded  by  him  in  some  letter  or  note- 
book when  all  was  fresh  in  the  mind.  Nothing,  then, 
which  admits  us  to  the  inner  secrets  of  the  Monroe 
administration  upon  the  Seminole  question  can  be  so 


MONROE  AND    THE  RHEA  LETTER.     105 

trustworthy  as  the  correspondence  in  1818  of  the 
parties  concerned  and  John  Quincy  Adams's  scrupu- 
lous Diary. 

As  Adams  himself,  Monroe's  Secretary  of  State, 
while  thoroughly  conscientious,  was  a  keen  and 
unsparing  critic  of  his  political  associates  and  chief- 
tain, in  what  he  thus  jotted  down,  and  at  the  present 
juncture  the  only  one  of  them  all  who  showed  a  dis- 
position to  sustain  Jackson's  conduct  to  the  utmost, 
we  may  trust  his  recorded  impressions  as  not  too 
indulgent  toward  the  administration.  His  minutes 
of  the  Seminole  discussions  show  clearly  enough  that 
the  capture  of  Pensacola  was  an  entire  surprise  to 
the  Cabinet,  Calhoun  included,  and  to  the  President, 
who  had  summoned  them  for  counsel.  The  question 
for  consultation  here  was  not  (as  Jackson,  long  years 
after,  chose  to  believe)  whether  to  punish  the  general 
commanding  for  disobedience,  but  whether  to  approve 
or  disapprove  of  his  proceedings.  Not  only  did 
Monroe  state  the  capture  as  a  breach  of  orders,  but 
the  news  of  Pensacola's  surrender  came  at  the  very 
moment  when,  under  the  favor  of  the  French  minister 
at  Washington,  negotiations  with  Spain  for  the  pur- 
chase of  Florida  had  been  taken  up  anew,  with  fresh 
hopes  of  success.  Despatches  relating  to  the  execu- 
tion of  Arbuthnot  and  Ambrister  had  miscarried,  and 
hence  the  full  scope  of  Jackson's  conduct  did  not  yet 
appear;  but,  as  to  the  Spanish  posts,  all  the  Cabinet 
finally  concurred  in  the  conclusion  that  their  capture 
must  be  disavowed  as  having  been  made  without 
authority.  The  President  generously  admitted  that 
there  might  be  justification  for  taking  Pensacola 
under  some  circumstances,  but  that  Jackson  had  not 
made  out  his  case. 

Adams  gives  further  incidental  proof  of  the  Presi- 


106  HISTORICAL  BEIEFS, 

dent's  good  faith.  He  says  that,  while  candid  and 
good-humored  as  to  all  that  he,  the  Secretary  of 
State,  had  suggested  in  Jackson's  favor,  Monroe  was 
firm  on  the  main  conclusion.  And  once  more,  in 
November,  1818,  Adams  records  in  his  Diary  that 
when  revising  the  draft  of  the  official  despatch,  in 
which,  as  it  is  well  known,  the  Secretary  of  State 
made,  for  European  impression  as  against  Spain,  a 
most  brilliant  and  successful  defence  of  the  adminis- 
tration policy,  Monroe  altered  the  document,  saying : 
"  You  have  gone  too  far  in  justifying  Jackson's  acts 
in  Florida."  "I  am  decidedly  of  opinion,"  was  his 
recorded  substance  of  the  President's  comment,  "  that 
these  proceedings  have  been  attended  with  good 
results  and  are  in  the  main  justifiable ;  but  that  cer- 
tainly they  were  not  contemplated  in  any  of  the 
instructions  issued  to  Jackson.  I  think  the  public 
will  not  entirely  justify  the  general;  and  the  true 
course  for  ourselves  is  to  shield  and  support  him  as 
much  as  possible,  but  not  commit  the  administration 
on  points  where  the  public  will  be  against  us." 
Adams,  who  felt  the  force  of  the  criticism,  observes 
in  his  Diary  that  this  view  of  the  case  is  wise,  just, 
and  generous.  1 

Monroe's  whole  course  toward  Jackson,  indeed, 
corresponded  with  this  same  wise  and  generous  view 
of  his  public  duty.  Had  he  made  Jackson's  rule  of 
conduct  his  own  in  this  instance,  there  might  have 
been  war  with  the  allied  powers  of  Europe,  and,  what 
was  worse,  American  diplomacy  must  have  been 
stigmatized  as  perfidious.  But,  making  all  allow- 
ance for  Jackson's  idiosyncrasies,  Monroe  candidly 
acknowledged  the  positive  service  Jackson  rendered, 
as  events  turned  out;  and  positive  proofs  of  a  con- 

1  See  4  John  Quincy  Adams's  Diary  (1818). 


MONROE  AND    THE  RHEA   LETTER.     107 

tinued  confidence  were  given  soon  after,  as  when,  for 
instance,  he  commissioned  Jackson  to  receive  the 
cession  of  the  Floridas  from  the  Spanish  authorities 
after  the  treaty  with  Spain  had  been  ratified. 

In  his  message,  on  the  reassembling  of  Congress, 
Monroe  states  the  official  facts  clearly,  but  consider- 
ately. ^  Monroe's  most  confidential  correspondence 
of  this  date  with  his  own  friends  is  consistent  with 
the  same  theory.  To  Madison  (whom  he  constantly 
consulted  on  all  the  great  points  of  his  administra- 
tion), he  wrote,  February  7,  1819,  while  the  Seminole 
debates  were  progressing  in  the  House,  that  every- 
thing not  already  communicated  to  him  was  before 
the  country;  and,  reciting  the  policy  pursued  on  the 
receipt  of  Jackson's  Pensacola  despatches,  and  the 
justice  done  to  Spain  by  restoring  the  posts,  he  pro- 
ceeds to  blame  the  Spanish  authorities  themselves  for 
conniving  at  or  permitting  the  Seminole  hostilities, 
and  to  defend  himself  in  not  punishing  Jackson  "  for 
his  mistake."  2  Monroe  wrote,  March  17,  1819,  to 
Minister  Rush  in  a  similar  strain  after  the  Florida 
treaty  had  been  concluded  at  Washington. ^ 

But  how  was   the    delicate   affair   managed   with 

1  la  this  message  the  President  observes  that  only  by  returning 
these  posts  were  amicable  relations  preserved  with  Spain,  and  that  for 
changing  those  relations  Congress  and  not  the  Executive  has  the  power.  — 
Annual  Message,  November  17,  1818. 

2  Madison's  Writings  (1819) ;  Monroe  MSS. 

3  "  The  right  to  make  war,"  says  Monroe,  "  was  not  only  not 
assumed  by  the  Executive,  but  explicitly  disclaimed.  The  General 
transcended  his  orders,  but  that  was  no  breach  of  the  Constitution ;  he 
chastised  all  those  as  well  in  secret  as  open  hostility  to  the  United 
States.  But  as  soon  as  the  orders  of  the  Government  reached  him 
and  those  under  him,  a  prompt  obedience  followed."  And  Monroe 
further  observes  (once  more  defending  himself  for  not  censuring 
Jackson),  that  had  he  censured  our  commander  and  exculpated  the 
Spanish  authorities  in  Florida,  the  cession  just  made  would  not  have 
been  procured.  —  Monroe  MSS. 


108  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

Jackson  himself,  so  as  to  soothe  an  insubordinate 
commander  while  reversing  his  acts  ?  Most  skilfully, 
as  the  correspondence  to  be  found  in  Parton's  Life 
will  show,  and  with  an  obvious  endeavor  on  Monroe's 
part  to  assure  the  general  of  his  personal  sympathy 
and  at  the  same  time  point  out  his  breach  of  official 
orders.  This  correspondence,  which  was  carried  on 
after  Jackson's  return  from  Florida  to  Nashville,  and 
extended  from  July  to  December,  1818,  shows  that 
Jaclison  merely  claimed  to  construe  his  orders  differ- 
ently from  the  War  Department,  arguing  that  they 
gave  him  a  broad  discretion.  And  Parton,  who  relies 
upon  the  hypothesis  (whose  origin  will  be  noticed  at 
length  hereafter)  that  Monroe  had  actually  sent 
Jackson  some  secret  sanction  through  Rhea,  in 
response  to  Jackson's  January  letter,  confesses  his 
own  surprise  that  these  epistles  should  have  contained 
no  allusion  to  that  subject.^  There  is,  however,  not 
only  an  allusion  here,  but  a  full  explanation  as  to  the 
receipt  of  the  January  letter,  which  Parton  has  either 
overlooked  or  intentionally  perverts:  namely,  in  the 
last  of  the  series,  Monroe's  response  of  December  21, 
1818,  to  Jackson's  of  November.  Monroe  says  at 
the  close  of  that  response :  "  On  one  circumstance  it 
seems  proper  that  I  should  now  give  you  an  explana- 
tion. Your  letter  of  January  6  was  received  when  I 
was  seriously  indisposed.  Observing  that  it  was 
from  you,  I  handed  it  to  Mr.   Calhoun  to  read,  after  ^ 

reading  one  or  two  lines  only  myself.  The  order  to  | 
you  to  take  command  in  that  quarter  had  before  then 
been  issued.  He  remarked,  after  perusing  the  letter, 
that  it  was  a  confidential  one,  relating  to  Florida, 
which  I  must  answer.  I  asked  him  if  he  had  forwarded 
to  you  the  orders  of  General  Gaines  on  that  subject. 

1  Parton's  Life  of  Jackson,  518-528. 


MONROE  AND   THE  RHEA  LETTER.     109 

He  replied  that  he  had.  Your  letter  to  me,  with 
many  others  from  friends,  was  put  aside  in  conse- 
quence of  my  indisposition  and  the  great  pressure  on 
me  at  the  time,  and  never  recurred  to  until  after 
my  return  from  Loudoun,  on  receipt  of  yours  by 
Mr.  Hambly,  and  then  on  the  suggestion  of  j\Ir. 
Calhoun.^' 1 

Here,  then,  is  a  complete  explanation  on  Monroe's 
part,  contemporaneous  with  the  events,  as  to  the 
effect  of  Jackson's  January  letter,  and,  so  far  as 
history  is  aware,  it  satisfied  Jackson,  for  he  made  no 
rejoinder  nor  ceased  to  cultivate  Monroe's  friendship. 
But  why  did  Monroe  volunteer  this  explanation, 
considering  that  Jackson's  letter  of  November,  to 
which  it  responded,  made  no  direct  allusion  to  tlie 
subject?  Possibly  there  was  the  barest  hint  in  that 
direction  in  the  November  letter,  though  Parton  him- 
self fails  to  discover  it.  A  chance  passage  in  John 
Quincy  Adams's  Diary  will,  I  think,  if  taken  in  con- 
nection with  Crawford's  later  assertions,  supply  the 
reason.  "  At  the  President's  [notes  Adams,  of  date 
December  17,  1818]  I  met  Secretary  CraAvford,  who 
was  reading  to  him  a  violent  attack  upon  himself  in 
a  letter  from  Nashville,  published  in  the  'Aurora '  of 
the  day  before  yesterday.  "2     Crawford,  recaUing  the 

1  For  this  letter  of  December  21,  1818,  in  full,  and  those  preceding, 
see  Monroe  ]MSS. ;  also  "  Correspondence  relating  to  the  Seminole 
War,"  prepared  by  Calhoun,  and  printed  at  Wasliington  in  1831, 
where  the  date  is  incorrectly  given  as  "1830,"  instead  of  "1818,"  — 
an  obvious  misprint,  as  the  context  alone  might  show.  This  letter  is 
strangely  garbled  and  misplaced  in  Parton's  Life  of  Jackson,  Vol.  II., 
pp.  434,  527. 

"Loudoun  "  refers  to  Monroe's  Virginia  home,  and,  as  John  Quincy 
Adams  afterward  pointed  out,  it  was  Hambly  who  brought  the  Pen- 
sacola  despatches  upon  which  the  Cabinet  consultations  were  held,  so 
that  tlie  allusion  of  the  text  is  to  Hambly's  arrival  in  July,  1818. 

'^  John  Quincy  Adams's  Diary. 


110  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

same  circumstances  to  Monroe's  mind,  in  1830,  states 
that  they  both  agreed  in  this  interview  that  the  essay 
had  been  written  either  under  Jackson's  direction  or 
by  some  one  who  had  access  to  Jackson's  confidential 
papers.^  And  to  that  conclusion  the  candid  reader 
will  arrive  if  he  examines,  as  this  writer  has  done, 
the  files  of  the  "Aurora"  for  December  15,  1818, 
and  reads  that  Nashville  letter.  In  the  course  of  it, 
the  unknown  writer,  "B.  B.,"  observes  that  the  gov- 
ernment knew  the  general's  views  upon  the  capture 
of  the  Spanish  forts  before  he  marched  his  army  into 
Florida;  and  if  this  be  so,  he  adds,  why,  if  those  did 
not  meet  their  own  views,  were  not  specific  orders  to 
the  contrary  given  him?^  This  anonymous  inquiry 
in  the  public  prints  touched  Monroe;  and  hence,  as 
we  infer,  his  explanation  to  Jackson,  made  but  a  few 
days  later,  and  the  only  one  ever  given,  which  the 
long  record  of  Monroe's  administration  discloses. 

Years  rolled  on,  and  the  Seminole  controversy 
slumbered.  Monroe's  long  administration  closed  with 
applause.  Among  the  numerous  candidates  in  1824 
for  the  succession  no  choice  was  made  by  the  electors, 
and  the  duty  of  a  selection  having  devolved  upon  the 
House  of  Representatives,  John  Quincy  Adams 
became  the  next  President.  But  so  formidable  a 
coalition  was  presently  made  of  Jackson's  supporters 
that  they  soon  gained  the  full  control  of  Congress, 
blocked  all  administration  measures,  and  prepared 
tlie  way  for  an  easy  victory  in  1828.  In  these  politi- 
cal arrangements,  Calhoun,  already  Vice-President, 
shifted  his  forces  to  Jackson,  whose  friends  in  turn 

1  Crawford's  lapse  of  memory  is  to  be  noted ;  he  called  it  "  an  essay 
in  a  Nashville  paper." 

2  "  Aurora"  (Philadelphia),  December  15,  1818.  Observe  that  this 
epistle  argues  that  to  the  January  letter  of  Jackson  no  reply  was  ever 
given. 


MONROE  AND    THE  RHEA   LETTER.     Ill 

agreed  to  support  him  for  re-election  on  the  Demo- 
cratic ticket.  In  this  state  of  affairs  an  old  feud 
between  Calhoun  and  Crawford  broke  out  afresh  in 
1827 ;  the  friends  of  tlie  latter  now  seeking  to  embroil 
their  adversary  with  Jackson  by  charging  him  with 
duplicity  in  the  old  Seminole  business.  Appeal  Avas 
made  to  ex-President  Monroe  for  the  facts;  and 
among  other  issues  of  veracity  raised  between  Cal- 
houn and  Crawford  was  that  concerning  the  re- 
ception and  use  made  of  Jackson's  January  letter. 
Monroe  transmitted  his  private  correspondence  for 
Calhoun  to  use  strictly  in  his  OAvn  justification ;  and 
at  the  same  time  perceiving,  as  he  thought,  a  grow- 
ing disposition  on  the  part  of  Jackson's  friends  to 
pervert  facts  and  rob  the  Virginia  statesmen  of  merited 
honors  for  their  own  hero's  glory,  he  recalled,  with  no 
little  feeling,  the  generous  interest  he  had  always 
shown  in  Jackson's  welfare.  As  for  Jackson's 
January  letter,  Monroe  here  reiterated  the  explana- 
tion of  1818.  "I  solemnly  declare,"  he  writes 
Calhoun,  "that  I  never  read  that  letter  until  after 
the  affair  was  concluded;  nor  did  I  ever  think  of  it 
until  you  recalled  it  to  my  recollection  by  an  intima- 
tion of  its  contents  and  a  suggestion  that  it  had  also 
been  read  by  Crawford,  who  had  mentioned  it  to 
some  person  who  might  be  disposed  to  turn  it  to 
some  account."  ^ 

A  further  statement  in  this  same  confidential  letter 
becomes  of  startling  importance.  "  I  asked  Mr.  Rhea 
in  a  conversation,"  proceeds  Monroe,  "whether  he 
had  ever  intimated  to  General  Jackson  his  opinion 
that  the  administration  had  no  objection  to  his  mak- 
ing an  attack  on  Pensacola,  and  he  declared  tliat  he 
never  had.     I   did   not   know,    if   the   general    had 

1  Monroe  MSS.,  January  28,  1827. 


112  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

written  him  to  the  same  effect  as  he  had  to  me,  as  I 
had  not  read  my  letter,  but  that  he  might  have  led 
me  innocently  into  a  conversation  in  which,  wishing  to 
obtain  Florida,  I  might  have  expressed  a  sentiment 
from  which  he  might  have  drawn  that  inference.  But 
he  assured  me  that  no  such  conversation  ever  passed 
between  us.  I  did  not  apprise  him  of  the  letter 
which  I  had  received  from  the  general  on  the  subject, 
being  able  to  ascertain  my  object  without  doing  so."^ 

Efforts  were  made,  during  the  bitter  campaign  of 
1828,  to  draw  Monroe  from  his  retirement;  but  he 
maintained  in  honor  the  strictest  neutrality  as  between 
the  candidates  just  as  he  had  done  in  1824.  He 
rejected  overtures  from  Adams's  supporters  to  place 
him  on  their  ticket  as  Vice-President;  and  both  he  and 
Madison  refused  to  serve  when  selected  to  head  the 
Virginia  list  of  presidential  electors  on  that  ticket. 

It  is  known  that  Monroe,  like  Jefferson,  while  above 
suspicion  in  all  public  pecuniary  transactions,  retired 
from  the  presidential  office,  weighed  down  with 
private  debts,  and  that  his  last  declining  years  were 
harassed  with  tlie  humiliating  struggles  of  pride  and 
poverty.  A  claim  pending  before  Congress  after  his 
retirement  promised  him,  or  rather  his  creditors,  a 
partial  relief;  and  meanwhile  President  Adams,  with 
a  tender  consideration  for  his  late  chief,  appointed 
Monroe's  son-in-law,  Samuel  L.  Gouverneur,  post- 
master of  New  York  City, — a  vacancy  having  occurred 
in  the  office  by  death,  —  in  the  expectation  that  some 
advantage  would  accrue  from  the  office  to  Monroe 
personally.  This,  however,  was  not  until  the  presi- 
dential contest  of  1828  was  settled,  and  that  adversely, 
of  course,  to  Adams  himself.  After  Jackson  came 
into  the  White  Hovise  there  was  a  vigorous  proscrip- 

1  Monroe  MSS.  January  28,  1827. 


MONROE  AND    THE  RHEA   LETTER.     113 

tion  among  the  officeholders ;  and  Monroe  saw  with 
sorrow  that  the  proscription  extended  to  men  long 
attached  to  himself  in  friendship  and  confidence. 
Jackson  gave  no  direct  proof  that  he  had  construed 
Monroe's  neutrality  to  his  prejudice;  yet  symptoms 
of  this  appeared,  Early  in  1831  the  breach  between 
Crawford  and  Calhoun  became  open;  the  latter, 
still  Vice-President,  had  been  expelled  from  the  con- 
fidence of  the  administration,  and  the  issues  of  the 
Seminole  War  burned  fiercely  in  the  public  prints. 
Both  Crawford  and  Calhoun  turned  once  more  to 
Monroe  and  to  their  Cabinet  associates  under  his 
presidency  for  testimony  to  corroborate  their  respec- 
tive statements. 

With  regard  to  Jackson's  January  letter  a  curious 
issue  had  now  arisen.  Crawford  charged  Calhoun 
with  suppressing  knowledge  of  its  contents.  Calhoun 
claimed  in  return  that  Crawford  had  purloined  that 
letter  from  the  War  Department.  Crawford  insisted 
that  the  letter  had  been  read  in  the  Cabinet  consulta- 
tions of  1818  upon  the  fall  of  Pensacola;  Calhoun, 
that  it  never  was  before  the  Cabinet  at  all.  On  this 
latter  point  Calhoun  was  doubtless  right ;  for  Monroe, 
Wirt,  and  Adams  all  sustained  him,  the  last-named 
having  his  own  Diary  to  refresh  his  recollections; 
and,  indeed,  the  January  letter  now  produced  was  to 
Wirt  and  Adams  a  new  revelation.  But  Crawford, 
like  Calhoun,  appears  to  be  fairly  absolved  from  the 
imputation  of  falsehood  in  this  matter,  for  Monroe 
was  of  the  belief  that  both  Calhoun  and  Crawford 
had  been  shown  the  letter;  and  Adams,  comparing 
the  several  statements  of  this  date  with  Monroe's 
explanation  of  December,  1818,  suggested,  fairly 
enough,  that  while  the  January  letter  was  certainly 
not  before  the  Cabinet  at  all  when  the  Seminole  ques- 

8 


114  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

tions  were  discussed,  it  might  have  been  produced 
about  that  time,  while  only  Crawford  and  Calhoun 
were  with  the  President.^ 

By  April,  1831,  a  partial  allowance  of  Monroe's 
claim  had  been  voted  by  Congress.  The  venerable 
ex-President  was  fast  failing  in  health  and  spirits. 
His  wife,  whom  he  dearly  loved,  had  recently  died, 
also  one  of  his  two  sons-in-law.  He  was  troubled 
with  a  constant  cough  from  which  he  could  procure 
no  relief.  The  solitude  of  his  farm  was  insupport- 
able, nor  might  he  call  the  ancestral  acres  his  own. 
He  announced  to  Madison  the  intention  of  taking  his 
widowed  daughter  with  him  to  New  York,  there  to 
remain  for  the  present  with  the  family  of  his  other 
child,  Mrs.  Gouverneur.  "  My  situation,"  he  wrote  in 
a  letter  of  farewell  to  his  life-long  friend,  ''  prescribes 
my  course,  and  I  deeply  regret  that  there  is  no  pros- 
pect I  will  ever  see  you  again."  It  was  not  long 
after  this  departure  that  ex-President  Adams,  while 
passing  through  New  York,  found  his  illustrious 
predecessor  confined  to  his  sick  chamber,  extremely 
feeble  and  emaciated,  and  so  exhausted  by  the  exer- 
tion of  speaking  that  Adams  dared  not  protract  the 
call,  though  he  felt  it  to  be  a  final  one.^ 

While  Monroe  was  thus  suffering,  a  strange  letter 
arrived  at  the  house  of  his  son-in-law,  now  installed 
as  the  ex-President's  confidential  secretary  and  the 
chosen  custodian  of  his  papers.  Even  to  this  day, 
that  letter,  deliberately  composed  and  appearing  to 
have  been  carefully  copied  out,  bristles  with  hate 
and  defiance,  every  line  resembling  a  row  of  rattle- 
snakes. It  is  written  and  signed  by  John  Rhea.  It 
asks  Monroe  whether  he  received  a  confidential  letter 

1  Monroe  MSS.  ;  John  Quincy  Adams's  Diary,  1818,  1831. 

2  John  Quincy  Adams's  Diary,  April  27,  1831 ;  Monroe  MSS. 


MONROE  AND    THE  RHEA  LETTER,    115 

from  Andrew  Jackson,  dated  January  6,  1818.  After 
identifying  that  letter  it  thus  continues:  "I  had 
many  confidential  conversations  with  you  respecting 
General  Jackson  at  that  period.  You  communicated 
to  me  that  confidential  letter,  or  its  substance, 
approved  the  opinion  of  Jackson  therein  expressed, 
and  did  authorize  me  to  write  to  him.  I  did  accord- 
ingly write  to  him.  He  says  he  received  my  letter 
on  his  way  to  Fort  Scott,  and  acted  accordingly. 
After  that  war  a  question  was  raised  in  your  Cabinet 
as  to  General  Jackson's  authority,  and  that  question 
was  got  over.  I  know  that  General  Jackson  was  in 
Washington  in  January,  1819,  and  my  confidential 
letter  was  probably  in  his  possession.  You  requested 
me  to  request  General  Jackson  to  burn  that  letter,  in 
consequence  of  which  I  asked  General  Jackson,  and 
he  promised  to  do  so.  He  has  since  informed  me 
that  April  12,  1819,  he  did  burn  it."  Rhea  closed 
with  the  request  for  a  reply. 

This  letter,  containing  statements  so  utterly  at 
variance  with  all  that  had  ever  been  said  or  written 
hitherto  upon  the  Seminole  War,  was  opened  by 
Gouverneur.  Monroe  had  for  weeks  been  confined 
to  his  bed,  and  those  attending  him  had  found  it 
absolutely  necessary  to  keep  his  mind  free  from  all 
excitement  or  anxiety.  In  his  astonishment  and 
perplexity,  the  son-in-law  consulted  Wirt,  the  trusted 
legal  adviser  of  former  administrations.  Wirt,  agree- 
ing with  him  that  Rhea's  story  was  not  only  utterly 
false,  but  invented  for  some  hidden  political  purpose, 
urged  that  Monroe's  solemn  statement  be  procured. 
Gouverneur  followed  this  advice;  and  accordingly 
on  the  19th  of  June,  1831,  the  ex-President  made 
his  deposition  in  presence  of  witnesses,  signing  his 
familiar  name  firmly  and  legibly  at  the  close.     As  to 


116  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

this  Rhea  letter  shown  him  for  the  first  time,  and  of 
which  he  never  before  had  an  intimation,  Monroe 
declares  on  oath:  (1)  That  it  is  utterly  unfounded 
and  untrue  that  he  ever  authorized  John  Rhea  to 
write  any  letter  authorizing  Andrew  Jackson  to 
deviate  from  or  disobe}^  the  orders  sent  him  through 
the  War  Department;  (2)  That  it  is  utterly  untrue 
that  he  ever  desired  John  Rhea  to  request  Andrew 
Jackson  to  destroy  any  letter  written  by  him  to 
General  Jackson. 

This  document  is  still  extant,  and  I  have  read  it 
with  no  little  emotion.  It  is  probably  the  last  of 
State  papers,  if  I  may  use  that  expression,  which 
Monroe  ever  subscribed;  and  what  must  have  passed 
thiough  his  mind,  as  to  the  vanity  of  fame  and  friend- 
ship, while  his  pen  glided  over  the  paper,  the  reader 
may  imagine.  On  the  ensuing  4th  of  July  Monroe 
was  dead;  and  with  his  death  the  Seminole  contro- 
versy suddenly  subsided.  Whether  the  affair  was 
dropped  because  this  triangular  quarrel  between 
Jackson,  Calhoun,  and  Crawford  had  ended  in  a 
permanent  rupture  of  relations,  or  because  the  public 
would  hear  no  more  of  it,  or  possibly  because  the 
administration  and  President  Jackson  personally  had 
learned  from  some  source  that  there  was  a  statement 
made  in  extremis  which  might  be  forthcoming,  history 
does  not  record.  But  it  may  now  be  positively 
affirmed  that  Monroe's  most  intimate  friends  were 
informed  confidentially  of  this  deposition,  and  that 
one  of  them  at  least  —  John  Quincy  Adams  —  has  left 
on  record  an  opinion  as  to  the  Rhea  letter  expressed 
in  language  sufficiently  clear  and  vehement.^ 

1  See  John  Quincy  Adams's  Diary,  August  30,  1831,  "There  is  a 
depth  of  depravity  in  this  transaction,"  observes  Adams,  "  at  which 
the  heart  sickens."     See  further  comments,  etc. 


MONROE  AND    THE  RHEA  LETTER.     Ill 

No  exigency  ever  arose  for  the  production  of 
Monroe's  deposition  while  either  Rhea  or  Gouverneur 
lived.  Jackson,  triumphant  over  all  political  foes, 
furnished  no  material  for  reviving  the  dispute.  But, 
long  after  Jackson's  death,  Benton  found  among  some 
chests  containing  Jackson's  private  papers,  which 
were  then  and  are  still  in  the  custody  of  the  Blair 
family  at  Washington,  a  lengthy  document  which 
purported  to  contain  an  exposition  of  Jackson's 
conduct  in  the  Seminole  War  from  Jackson's  own 
standpoint.  This  document,  prepared  evidently  for 
publication  in  the  heat  of  the  Calhoun  controversy 
in  1831,  had  for  some  reason  been  suppressed,  or  at 
least  withheld  from  the  public.  Being  then  engaged 
in  preparing  his  "Thirty  Years'  View,"  which  was 
published  about  1854,  Benton  made  free  use  of  it. 
As  a  chronicler  he  set  the  narrative  forth  at  much 
length;  and  as  a  long-devoted  partisan  of  General 
Jackson,  and  one  moreover  having  slight  personal 
knowledge  of  the  whole  affair,  he  accepted  its  allega- 
tions with  no  real  effort  to  discriminate.  But  the 
careful  critic  must  perceive  that  the  document  is 
not  greatly  to  be  trusted.  The  writing,  as  Benton 
observes,  is  that  of  some  clerk,  in  a  fair,  round  hand, 
with  slight  interlineations  by  the  general,  and  the 
expression  is  sometimes  in  the  third  person  and  some- 
times in  the  first.  Plainly  enough,  the  story  is  long 
and  loosely  put  together,  with  hasty  transitions  from 
narrative  to  argument,  with  ad  captandum  thrusts, 
with  assertions  equally  positive  whether  facts  are 
alleged  as  of  Jackson's  personal  knowledge  or  upon 
mere  hearsay;  its  main  purpose  is  to  put  Calhoun 
in  the  wrong  and  convict  him  of  duplicit}^,  and  its 
whole  strain  is  passionate  and  bitter.  Though  bear- 
ing Jackson's  signature  at  the  end,  it  is  not  sworn 


118  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

to;  page  after  page  might  have  been  interpolated 
by  a  scribe ;  and  finally  there  is  no  proof  that  Jackson 
himself  ever  finally  accepted  it  as  fit  for  publication, 
but  rather  the  reverse.^ 

In  this  document  appears  a  statement  as  to  the 
Jackson  January  letter  which  singularly  fits  into 
Rhea's  mysterious  epistle  of  1831.  It  alleges  that 
while  Jackson  and  Rhea  were  in  Washington,  during 
the  winter  of  1819  (or  at  the  time  of  the  Seminole 
debates),  Rhea  called  on  Jackson,  as  he  said  at  the 
request  of  Monroe,  and  begged  him  on  his  return 
home  to  burn  the  letter  authorizing  the  capture  of 
the  Spanish  posts  which  Rhea  had  written  Jackson  in 
1818.  Jackson,  it  adds,  gave  Rhea  the  promise  thus 
solicited;  and  accordingly,  after  his  return  to  Nash- 
ville, he  burnt  Rhea's  letter,  and  on  his  letter-book, 
opposite  the  copy  of  his  January  letter  to  Monroe, 
made  this  entry:  "Mr.  Rhea's  letter  in  answer  is 
burnt  this  12th  April,   1819.  "2 

1  See  Benton's  Thirty  Years'  View,  Vol.  I.,  p.  168  et  seq. 

2  1  Benton's  Thirty  Years'  View,  168  et  seq.  This  is  the  statement 
borrowed  by  Parton,  to  which  allusion  has  already  been  made  in  this 
article,  supra,  p.  101.  If  it  were  needful,  much  might  be  .said  to  dis- 
credit such  a  story.  From  the  Jackson  statement  one  gathers  the 
impression  that  Rhea's  letter,  being  already  in  Nashville,  was  burnt 
by  Jackson  at  the  first  opportunity.  But  Rhea's  letter  to  Monroe  in 
1831  supposes  rather  that  Jackson  had  the  letter  with  him  while  in 
Washington,  which  is  the  more  consistent.  The  general  had  come 
all  the  way  from  Nashville  to  Washington,  in  order  to  produce  his 
papers  and  justify  himself  before  a  Congressional  committee ;  and  is 
it  to  be  supposed  that  a  letter  so  material  to  his  defence,  if  it  existed 
at  all,  and  he  had  relied  upon  it,  would  have  been  left  behind  ?  And 
if  he  had  that  letter  with  him,  why,  in  utter  disregard  of  the  reasons 
which  the  Benton  document  puts  forward  so  sedulously,  should  Jack- 
son have  so  long  deferred  destroying  it,  Avhen  it  was  so  easy  to  relieve 
Rhea  of  embarrassment  b}'  returning  the  letter  or  burning  it  before 
his  eyes  on  the  spot  ?  Again,  it  is  certain  that  Jackson  saw  the  Presi- 
dent and  Secretary  of  War  frequently,  while  on  this  visit  to  Was.hing- 
ton,  and  that  he  was  on  the  most  cordial  terms  with  both  of  them. 


MONROE  AND    THE  BHEA  LETTER,     119 

Monroe's  own  connection  with  Jackson's  January 
letter  has  now,  I  think,  been  amply  explained.  And 
as  for  that  Rhea  letter,  which,  it  is  claimed,  Andrew 
Jackson  burnt  at  Rhea's  request,  only  one  of  two 
theories  appears  tenable:  (1)  That  Rhea  imposed 
upon  Jackson  in  the  Florida  business  a  pretended 
authority  which  the  President  never  gave  him,  —  a 
situation  which  might  well  explain  his  anxiety  in 
1819  that  his  letter  to  Jackson  should  be  destroyed; 
(2)  That  the  whole  story  was  fabricated,  in  or  about 
1831,  by  Rhea  and  others  in  Jackson's  confidence,  for 
some  political  purpose,  in  connection  with  the  Calhoun 
disclosures,  which  they  did  not  see  fit  to  press.  The 
latter  hypothesis,  I  regret,  for  Jackson's  sake,  to  say, 
appears  altogether  the  more  probable;  and  that 
hypothesis  Wirt  and  John  Quincy  Adams  accepted, 
—  men  most  competent  to  judge,  and  not  more  dis- 
posed to  favor  Calhoun  than  Jackson. 

One  w^ord  as  to  the  private  papers  of  Jackson  to 
which  I  have  alluded.  Since  the  recent  death  of 
Hon.  Montgomery  Blair,  these  papers  have  been  held 
by  his  executors,  who  intimate  an  intention  to  arrange 
them  for  publication.  Congress,  on  the  other  hand, 
at  the  instance  of  Jackson's  surviving  relatives,  is 
considering  the  propriety  of  purchasing  them.  In 
the  interest  of  our  national  history,  I  trust  that  the 
question  of  title  to  these  important  documents  will 
soon  be  settled,  so  that  they  may  be  opened  to  the 

"Why,  then,  should  one  of  the  general's  astuteness  have  acted  thus 
upon  Rhea's  oral  request,  unsupported  by  proof  that  the  request  came 
from  the  President,  and  without  a  suspicion  of  Rhea's  motives  in 
making  it  ?  And,  once  more,  as  Parton  himself  has  suggested,  is  it 
not  singular  that,  while  we  are  told  that  Rhea's  letter  to  Jackson  was 
burnt,  neither  Rhea  nor  Jackson  has  pretended  to  state  what  was  its 
substance,  what  the  dates  of  Rhea's  interview  with  Monroe,  what  the 
terms  of  the  supposed  authority,  or  any  other  details  ? 


120  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

inspection  of  historical  scholara  and  investigators,  if 
not  to  the  general  public.  I  shall  be  glad  to  learn 
whether  the  Jackson  papers  throw  any  light  upon  the 
purposes  which  this  falsehood  about  Rhea's  backstairs 
mission  —  for  falsehood  it  certainly  was  —  was  meant 
to  subserve. 


PEESIDENT   POLK'S  DIARY. 

In  tlie  Lenox '  Library  of  New  York  City  may  be 
seen  the  literary  relics  of  the  late  George  Bancroft, 
which  that  institution  purchased  in  1893  from  the 
executors  of  his  estate,  after  Congress  had  delayed 
action  upon  their  offer  of  the  whole  undivided  col- 
lection to  the  United  States  government  at  an 
appraised  value  of  875,000,  under  a  provision  of  the 
historian's  will.  The  price  paid  privately  was  nearly 
ten  thousand  dollars  more  than  that  asked  from  the 
public;  the  entire  collection  numbering,  in  books, 
pamphlets,  and  manuscripts,  about  twenty  thousand 
volumes. 

Among  the  richest  treasures  of  this  collection,  as 
well  as  its  latest  important  accession  during  Mr. 
Bancroft's  life,  should  be  reckoned  the  private  papers 
and  correspondence  of  President  James  K.  Polk;  or 
rather,  we  should  say,  t3rpe-written  copies  of  the 
original  manuscripts,  which  were  prepared  under  the 
venerable  author's  immediate  supervision,  and  bound 
up,  after  careful  verification,  in  handsome  volumes 
of  half- turkey  morocco  with  gilt-letter  titles.  Mr. 
Bancroft,  as  the  last  survivor  of  a  Cabinet  and  an 
administration  whose  policy  was  in  many  respects 
profound  and  far-reaching,  suddenly  conceived,  at 
the  age  of  eighty-six,  the  purpose  of  making  an 
authentic    and   complete   narrative    of   that  political 

Reprinted  from  Atlantic  Monthly,  August,  1895. 


122  HISTORICAL   BRIEFS. 

term;  and  accordingly,  after  writing  to  Nashville  in 
April,  1887,  lie  visited  Mr.  Polk's  widow,  and 
obtained  full  permission  to  take  to  his  own  home  the 
mass  of  papers  which  had  remained  undisturbed  as 
the  ex-President  left  them  at  his  death,  nearly  forty 
years  earlier,  and  to  make  such  use  of  them  as  he 
might  deem  fit.  The  scholar  pursued  his  task  with 
ardor,  so  far  as  to  prepare  and  arrange  the  desired 
materials,  a  labor  most  congenial  and  easy  to  one  of 
his  long  experience ;  he  felt  the  first  glow  of  this  new 
literary  undertaking,  which  was  sure  to  bring  hidden 
testimony  to  light.  But  his  remarkable  intellect  and 
trained  habits  of  industry  were  not  equal,  at  so  late 
an  age,  to  the  creative  task  of  composition ;  his  health 
declined,  and  on  the  17th  of  January,  1891,  he  died. 
This  final  service  of  our  historical  sage  in  the  interest 
of  American  past  politics  was  a  distinct  and  valuable 
one,  but  it  was  that  of  compiler,  rather  than  of  histo- 
rian. He  has,  however,  left  on  record  the  impres- 
sions made  on  his  own  mind  by  the  perusal  of  the 
manuscript.  "Polk's  character  shines  out  in  these 
papers,"  he  writes,  "just  exactly  as  the  man  was,  ^ 
prudent,  far-sighted,  bold,  exceeding  any  Democrat 
of  his  day  in  his  undeviatingly  correct  exposition  of 
Democratic  principles." 

Unquestionably,  the  chief  historical  value  of  the 
Polk  collection  consists  in  the  twenty-four  volumes 
of  Mr.  Polk's  Diary,  kept  during  nearly  the  whole 
term  of  his  presidency;  each  volume  averaging  about 
a  hundred  type-written  pages  in  the  large  octavo 
which  Mr.  Bancroft  used.  It  must  be  a  surprise  to 
most  of  our  fellow-countrymen  to  learn  that  another 
President  besides  John  Quincy  Adams  kept  an  exten- 
sive journal  while  in  ofhce;  and  especially  that  an 
Executive  so  absorbed  in  difficult  details  as  Mr.  Polk 


PRESIJDENT  POLK'S  DIART.  123 

should  have  found  time  to  record  his  impressions 
from  day  to  day  at  such  great  length,  and  with  so 
obvious  a  determination  to  be  exact  and  comprehen- 
sive. Such  an  enterprise  steadily  pursued,  and  with 
no  full  opportunity  to  change  or  suppress  what  at  the 
time  was  written,  reveals  not  only  facts  essential  to  a 
correct  understanding  of  public  actions,  but,  more 
unconsciously,  the  mental  cast  and  political  bias  of 
the  writer.  Like  his  more  erudite  predecessor,  Polk 
cherished  —  and  probably  with  greater  zeal  —  the  pur- 
pose of  vindicating  some  day  his  secret  political 
motives  and  his  public  relations  with  other  men;  but 
his  premature  death,  very  soon  after  his  four  years' 
term  had  expired,  left  the  Diary  unrevised  as  its  own 
expositor,  an  inner  fountain  of  information  unadorned. 
No  two  Presidents  could  have  been  more  at  the  antip- 
odes than  were  Polk  and  John  Quincy  Adams  in 
political  affiliations  and  designs.  Yet  each,  after  hi-s 
peculiar  fashion,  was  honest,  inflexible  in  purpose, 
and  pursuant  of  the  country's  good;  and  both  have 
revealed  views  singularly  alike  —  the  one  as  a  scholar, 
the  other  as  a  sage  and  sensible  observer  —  of  the 
selfish,  ignoble,  and  antagonistic  influences  which 
surge  about  the  citadel  of  national  patronage,  and 
beset  each  supreme  occupant  of  the  White  House. 

President  Polk  has  stated  the  circumstances  under 
which  he  commenced  his  Diary.  On  the  26th  of 
August,  1845,  he  held  with  his  Secretary  of  State, 
James  Buchanan,  an  important  conversation  over  the 
Oregon  troubles,  which  he  reduced  at  once  to  writ- 
ing; and  after  reflecting  upon  this  narrative  in  his 
own  solitude,  he  determined  to  open  a  diary  at  once 
and  continue  the  plan.  Next  day  he  procured  a 
blank  book,  with  this  purpose  in  view,  and  began 
his  entries  regularly,  concluding  to  make  them  longer 


124  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

or  shorter  as  convenience  and  the  events  worth  record- 
ing might  determine.  The  conversation  of  August 
26,  however,  he  did  not  again  transcribe,  but  left  the 
written  sheets  separate,  beginning  his  book  on  the 
27th.  The  journal  thus  commenced  he  continued 
from  day  to  day  for  the  remainder  of  his  remarkable 
term,  which  lasted  from  March  4,  1845,  to  March  4, 
1849.  Leaving  office,  feeble  and  in  failing  health, 
on  the  latter  date,  he  died  in  the  middle  of  the 
following  June. 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  Mr.  Polk's  official 
course  in  despoiling  iMexico  for  the  aggrandizement 
of  his  own  country,  one  cannot  read  this  Diary 
carefully  without  an  increased  respect  for  his  simple 
and  sturdy  traits  of  character,  his  inflexible  honesty 
in  financial  concerns,  and  the  pertinacious  zeal  and 
strong  sagacity  which  characterized  his  whole  presi- 
dential career.  Making  all  due  allowance  for  any 
personal  selfishness  which  might  color  his  narrative, 
we  now  perceive  clearly  that  he  was  the  framer  of 
that  public  policy  which  he  carried  into  so  successful 
execution,  and  that  instead  of  being  led  (as  many 
might  have  imagined)  by  the  more  famous  statesmen 
of  his  administration  and  party  who  surrounded  him, 
he  in  reality  led  and  shaped  his  own  executive  course ; 
disclosing  in  advance  to  his  familiar  Cabinet  such 
part  as  he  thought  best  to  make  known,  while  con- 
cealing the  rest.  Both  Bancroft  and  Buchanan,  of 
his  official  advisers,  have  left  on  record,  since  his 
death,  incidental  tributes  to  his  greatness  as  an 
administrator  and  unifier  of  executive  action;  both 
admitting  in  effect  his  superior  force  of  will  and 
comprehension  of  the  best  practical  methods  for 
attaining  his  far-reaching  ends.  On  the  other  hand, 
while  the  Diary  shows  that  Mr.   Polk  held  the  one 


PRESIDENT  POLK'S  DIARY.  125 

Secretary  in  high  esteem,  it  is  plain  that  he  appreciated 
the  many  weaknesses  of  the  other,  with  whom  he  had 
frequent  differences  of  opinion,  which  in  these  secret 
pages  elicit  his  own  sharp  comment.  In  fact,  the 
Secretary  of  State,  whom  he  repeatedly  overruled, 
felt,  for  the  first  sixteen  months,  at  least,  of  this 
executive  term,  so  much  dissatisfied  with  various 
features  of  Polk's  policy,  and  in  particular,  like  othevs 
of  Pennsylvania,  so  discontented  with  the  famous  low 
tariff  measure  which  Polk  was  bent  upon  carrying, 
that  in  the  summer  of  184:6  he  arranged  definitely 
to  retire  from  the  Cabinet,  to  accept  a  Middle  State 
vacancy  on  the  supreme  bench,  which  the  President 
promised  him ;  though  with  an  overruling  discretion 
deferring  the  appointment  until  the  new  tariff  act 
was  out  of  jeopardy  at  the  Capitol,  when  Buchanan 
himself  at  last  concluded  to  remain  where  he  was. 
Buchanan's  presidential  aspirations,  notwithstanding 
a  condition  exacted  by  the  President  from  all  who 
entered  the  administration,  that  they  should  cease  to 
aspire  so  long  as  they  sat  at  his  council  board, 
anno3^ed  him  much  as  time  went  on.  "  He  is  selfish," 
says  the  Diary  in  March,  1848,  "  and  controlled  so 
much  by  wishes  for  his  own  advancement,  that  I 
cannot  trust  his  advice  on  a  public  question ;  yet  it  is 
hazardous  to  dismiss,  and  I  have  borne  wdth  him." 
And  on  another  occasion  Polk  records,  after  repeatedly 
finding  his  Secretary  timid,  over-anxious,  and  dis- 
posed too  much  to  forestall  overtures  from  others 
which  the  administration  knew  were  due  and  were 
sure  to  come,  "  Mr.  Buchanan  is  an  able  man,  but  is 
in  small  matters  without  judgment,  and  sometimes 
acts  like  an  old  maid." 

All  hasty  diarists  are  likely  to  repeat  themselves ; 
and  no  idea  does  Mr.   Polk's  Diary  repeat   so   fre- 


126  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

quently  'as  that  of  disgust  with  the  constant  pressure 
for  office  which  our  chief  magistrate  encounters.  It 
is  the  same  phase  of  human  nature  which  John 
Quincy  Adams  beheld  with  a  like  antipathy,  though 
with  a  more  dogged  determination  not  to  yield  to 
such  importunity.  President  Polk  delineates  his 
tormentors  in  the  shape  of  callers  at  the  White 
House  as  they  may  still  be  seen :  some  to  seek  office, 
others  to  beg  money,  and  others  still  to  pay,  or 
profess  to  pay,  their  respects.  "A  year  gone," 
records  the  Diary,  March  4,  1846,  "and  the  pressure 
for  office  has  not  abated.  Will  this  pressure  never 
cease  ?  I  most  sincerely  wish  that  I  had  no  offices  to 
bestow.  If  I  had  not,  it  would  add  much  to  the 
happiness  and  comfort  of  my  position.  As  it  is,  I 
have  no  office  to  bestow  without  turning  out  better 
men  than  a  large  majority  of  those  who  seek  their 
places."  Again  in  September  is  his  loathing  expressed 
at  this  "  constant  stream  of  persons  seeking  office  and 
begging  money."  "Almost  the  whole  of  my  embar- 
rassment in  administering  the  government,"  he  writes 
in  May,  1847,  "grows  out  of  the  public  patronage 
which  it  is  my  duty  to  dispense."  But  the  pressure 
of  these  "loafers  for  office"  lasted  his  whole  term; 
even  "females"  (as  he  expresses  himself)  seeking 
personal  interviews  and  pleading  "  for  their  worthless 
relatives."  During  the  summer  of  1848,  at  a  time 
when  there  were  no  existing  offices  to  bestow,  the 
President  was  besieged  by  applicants,  simply  because 
Congress  was  going  to  pass  a  bill  for  creating  a  board 
of  commissioners  upon  Mexican  claims,  which  might 
or  might  not  meet  the  executive  approval;  and  so 
greatly  were  the  places  sought  in  advance  of  their 
creation  that  one  woman  pleaded  for  her  husband  as 
a  commissioner,  shedding  tears  freely,  and  distressing 


PRESIDENT  POLK'S  DIARY.  127 

the  President  with  a  story  of  their  poverty  and  great 
need  of  an  office ;  while  another  person  —  a  man  with 
whom  Mr.  Polk  had  once  served  in  Congress  —  occu- 
pied more  than  an  hour  in  soliciting  a  place  upon  the 
board,  "if  the  bill  should  pass."  "I  had,"  adds  the 
diarist,  "  no  idea  of  appointing  him,  and  yet  I  could 
not  avoid  hearing  him  without  rudeness."  Even 
after  the  presidential  election  of  1848,  in  which 
Polk's  own  party  candidate  was  defeated  by  the 
Whigs,  the  pressure  upon  this  Democratic  President 
continued  strong,  under  the  apparent  conviction  that 
the  incoming  Executive,  General  Taylor,  was  not 
likely  to  make  many  removals.  "  The  herd  of  office- 
seekers,"  observes  Mr.  Polk  at  this  late  stage,  "are 
the  most  unprincipled  persons  in  the  country.  As  a 
mass  they  are  governed  by  no  principle."  And  pro- 
fessing to  be  Democrats  under  him,  he  expected  them 
to  go  vice  versa  under  his  Whig  successor,  whom 
many  of  them  had  helped  elect.  "The  patronage," 
he  finally  adds,  shortly  before  leaving  office,  "will, 
from  the  day  any  President  enters  upon  his  duties, 
weaken  his  administration." 

Judge  Mason,  of  the  Cabinet,  told  the  President  in 
April,  1848,  of  one  office-seeker  whose  papers  were 
filed  at  his  department  without  specifying  any  par- 
ticular office.  The  Secretary  asked  him  what  office 
he  wanted.  "I  am  a  good  hand  at  making  treaties," 
he  replied,  "and  as  some  are  to  be  made  soon,  I 
should  like  to  serve  as  a  minister  abroad." 

The  constant  interference  of  members  of  Congress 
in  these  matters  of  patronage  was  another  source  of 
annoyance  upon  which  ]\Ir.  Polk  made  frequent  com- 
ment. "Members  of  Congress,"  he  writes,  "attach 
great  importance  to  petty  offices,  and  assume  their 
right  to  make  the  appointments  in  their  own  States, 


128  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

thereby  joining  issue  with  heads  of  the  departments 
in  such  matters."  He  was  much  annoyed  when  a 
prominent  member  of  the  House,  who  had  already 
declined  the  mission  to  Russia,  pursued  him  for  an 
appointment  to  the  court  of  France,  not  only  in 
writing,  but  in  person  at  the  White  House,  and  face 
to  face,  most  persistently;  and  when,  after  much 
urging,  the  President  yielded  to  his  wishes,  and  the 
Senate  rejected  the  appointment,  this  person  grew 
angry  because  Polk  promptly  sent  in  another  name, 
and  he  soon  drifted  into  a  semi-hostile  position 
towards  the  administration.  Two  other  members  of 
the  House,  at  the  time  the  ^Mexican  war  was  declared, 
desired  appointments  as  military  paymasters,  under 
a  new  bill  which  they  had  done  much  to  frame  and 
push  through  Congress;  but  appointments  trenching 
so  closely  upon  the  prohibition  of  the  Constitution 
the  President  refused  to  make.  Again  and  again 
did  legislators  at  the  Capitol  oppose  the  executive 
wishes,  or  treat  the  highest  incumbent  with  personal 
incivility  over  some  quarrel  of  patronage.  "  Patron- 
age is  injurious  to  a  President,"  was  Polk's  decided 
opinion,  as  he  secretly  expressed  himself;  and  this 
partly  because  legislators  did  not  stand  by  the  conse- 
quences of  their  own  recommendations.  "Members 
of  Congress,"  writes  the  President,  December  16, 
1846,  "and  others  high  in  society  make  representa- 
tions for  friends  on  which  I  cannot  rely,  and  lead  me 
constantly  into  error.  When  I  act  upon  the  informa- 
tion which  they  give  me,  and  make  a  mistake,  they 
leave  me  to  bear  the  resj)onsibility,  and  never  have 
the  manliness  to  assume  it  for  themselves."  And 
yet  few  American  executives  had  seen  greater  expe- 
rience than  Polk  in  congressional  life,  or  proved  more 
capable,    while  at  the  other  end  of  the  avenue,  of 


PRESIDENT  POLK'S  DIARY.  129 

tnanaging  our  national  legislature  so  as  to  achieve 
their  most  cherished  plans. 

John  Quincy  Adams,  while  detesting  Polk's  politi- 
cal principles  and  his  narrow  conceptions  of  party 
infallibility,  does  justice  to  his  unquestionable  capac- 
ity for  toilsome  work  and  indefatigable  industry. 
The  same  habits  which  made  this  son  of  Tennessee 
so  conspicuous  in  despatching  legislative  business 
while  chairman  of  the  Ways  and  Means  committee 
or  Speaker  of  the  House  insured  his  successful  career 
as  President.  Failing  though  he  was  in  health  dur- 
ing these  four  consummate  years,  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  put  his  shoulder  to  the  wheel  whenever  the  work 
of  the  departments  got  into  deep  mire.  This  was 
partly  because  he  distrusted  others,  and  felt  con- 
stantly disposed  to  keep  all  executive  details,  foreign 
or  domestic,  great  or  small,  under  his  personal  con- 
trol. With  the  unexpected  burdens  thrown  upon  his 
administration  by  the  Mexican  war,  he  soon  found  his 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury^  quite  overworked,  and  in 
danger  of  death;  and  the  President,  sending  him 
away  for  recuperation,  took  an  active  hand  in  the 
financial  guidance  of  the  government,  at  the  same 
time  aiding  his  Secretary  of  War,  who  also  was  taken 
sick.  General  Scott  he  disliked  greatly,  as  the  rank- 
ing military  officer,  and  found  his  presence  at  Wash- 
ington so  embarrassing  that  he  resolved  to  send  him 
off;  and  he  strongly  suspected  that  the  detailed  chiefs 
of  the  quartermaster  and  commissary  divisions  were 
hostile  to  his  Mexican  policy.  Some  of  these  subor- 
dinates (so  he  writes)  "appear  to  be  indifferent  to 
our  contest,  and  merely  go  through  their  ordinary 
routine."  On  general  principle,  too,  he  felt  disposed 
to  check  such  lesser  chiefs.  "Bureau  officers,"  he 
writes  in  November,  1848,  "whose  duty  it  is  to  pre- 

9 


130  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

pare  estimates,  are  always  in  favor  of  large  appropria- 
tions. They  are  not  responsible  to  the  public,  but  to 
the  Executive,  and  must  be  watched  and  controlled  in 
these  respects."  After  the  adjournment  of  the  long 
session  of  Congress,  in  August  of  the  same  year, 
Polk,  who  had  not  been  three  miles  away  from  the 
White  House  (as  he  relates)  for  more  than  thirteen 
months,  took  a  brief  vacation  trip  for  his  health  to 
the  mineral  springs  of  Pennsylvania,  and  was  back 
again  in  ten  days;  attending  to  his  duties  at  the 
capital  in  the  hottest  summer  weather,  receiving 
important  secret  despatches  from  abroad,  and  in  fact 
conducting  the  government  for  a  whole  month  with- 
out the  aid  of  his  Cabinet,  who  were  mostly  away. 
"So  familiar  am  I,"  he  records  at  this  time,  "with 
all  the  principles  and  details  of  the  administration 
that  I  have  no  difficulty  in  doing  so ;  "  and  he  declared 
that  he  found  himself  better  acquainted  with  the 
work  than  his  subordinates  themselves.  But  he  con- 
fessed to  himself,  while  thus  engaged,  that  he  found 
the  presidency  no  bed  of  roses.  "No  President,"  he 
writes  at  the  close  of  this  year,  "who  performs  his 
duty  faithfully  and  conscientiously  can  have  any 
leisure.  If  he  intrusts  the  details  and  smaller  matters 
to  subordinates,  constant  errors  will  occur.  I  prefer 
to  supervise  the  whole  operations  of  the  government 
myself,  rather  than  intrust  the  public  business  to 
subordinates;  and  this  makes  my  duties  very  great." 

Mr.  Polk  had  much  of  Old  Hickory's  dislike  of 
financial  monopolists.  While  looking  after  the 
Treasury  during  Secretary  Walker's  absence,  at  the 
time  of  the  Mexican  war,  he  was  greatly  worried 
over  what  seemed  to  him  a  criminal  abuse  of  official 
power,  whereby  a  draft  for  two  million  dollars  for 
prospective  disbursements  in  the  quartermaster-gen- 


PRESIDENT  POLK'S  DIARY.  131 

eral's  bureau  had  been  lodged  with  private  bankers, 
to  be  checked  out  as  might  become  needfuL  To  one 
of  his  own  simple  integrity  in  money  matters,  defal- 
cation appeared  imminent;  but  the  Secretary  excul- 
pated himself  from  misconduct,  and  assured  the 
President  that  the  banking  credit  behind  the  draft 
was  strong  and  adequate.  Still  probing  into  the 
transaction,  the  President  found  that  confidential 
favors  in  the  way  of  a  special  deposit  were  part  of 
the  consideration  upon  which  our  war  loans  had 
been  negotiated ;  and  others  of  the  Cabinet  coming  to 
the  rescue  of  their  associate,  and  declaring  such  an 
arrangement  legal  in  their  opinion,  the  matter  appears 
to  have  finally  rested. 

In  various  other  respects  our  eleventh  President 
bore  strong  resemblance  to  his  immortal  fellow-towns- 
man, as  the  disciple  to  the  master,  the  less  to  the 
greater.  With  the  qualities  of  civilian  and  legisla- 
tor, instead  of  warrior  or  forceful  leader  of  the  mass, 
he  had  nevertheless  a  corresponding  tenacity  of  pur- 
pose within  the  circumscription  of  strict  party  lines. 
Andrew  Jackson  was  his  great  patron  and  exemplar, 
and  from  that  idolized  Democrat  of  the  Democracy 
came  doubtless  the  chief  inspiration  of  his  own  foreign 
policy;  though  Jackson  died  too  soon  after  this  new 
administration  came  into  power  to  influence  it  greatly 
in  particulars.  Polk's  affection  and  veneration  for 
the  general  appear,  however,  in  various  letters  copied 
among  these  papers;  and  Jackson  wrote  frequently 
from  the  Hermitage  in  confidence,  being  overrun  with 
applications  for  office,  not  a  few  of  which  he  pressed 
upon  the  new  Executive  with  characteristic  com- 
ment. We  here  see  injected  into  the  tale  of  his  own 
bodily  ailments  some  sensible  political  counsel  as 
against  the  "Whiggs"  and  those  "who  run  with  the 


132  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

hare  and  cry  with  the  hounds;"  and  Polk  took 
strongly  to  heart  the  language  of  one  letter  which  he 
sometimes  quoted  afterwards,  —  to  take  principle  for 
his  guide  and  make  the  public  good  his  end,  "  stear- 
ing  clear  of  the  intrigues  and  machinations  of  political 
dikes."  Indeed,  the  ncAV  President  of  the  Democracy 
valued  so  greatly  the  good  will  of  his  early  prede- 
cessor, though  not  always  free  to  follow  his  advice, 
that  upon  Jackson's  death,  in  June,  1845,  he  sought 
eagerly  a  last  letter  written  him,  to  show  to  incipient 
enemies  that  their  cordial  relation  had  continued  to 
the  close.  This  letter  appears  to  have  been  mislaid, 
in  the  midst  of  household  confusion  at  Nashville,  and 
political  treachery  was  suspected,  until,  after  much 
anxious  inquiry,  it  reached  Washington  with  a  suit- 
able explanation.  To  Polk's  dismay,  however,  the 
hero's  dying  communication  proved  unsuitable  for 
publication,  since  the  burden  of  it  was,  in  all  friendly 
confidence,  to  denounce  Polk's  chosen  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  whom  Jackson  much  disliked,  and  to 
guide  the  chief  Executive  into  a  train  of  inquiry 
regarding  this  man  and  a  former  government  official, 
also  stigmatized  by  the  writer  as  dishonest,  which 
might  elicit  certain  facts  and  blow  them  both  "  sky- 
high."  Some  interesting  accounts  of  Jackson's  last 
hours  and  funeral  are  contained  among  the  Polk 
papers ;  and  it  appears  that  in  the  last  simple  service 
at  the  Hermitage  the  hymn  given  out  (most  inappro- 
priate to  the  exit  of  such  a  character)  began,  — 

"  What  timorous  worms  we  mortals  are ! " 

Within  the  horizon  of  his  mental  vision  President 
Polk  was  singularly  clear-sighted  and  sensible;  but 
he  was  hemmed  in  by  partisan  and  religious  preju- 
dices which  limited  the  range  of  his  comprehension. 


PRESIDENT  POLK'S  DIARY,  133 

His  private  and  public  writings  alike  afford  full  proof 
of  this.  In  his  Diary,  the  Whigs  he  persisted  in 
styling  "Federalists,"  until  the  political  strength  of 
that  party  with  the  people,  and  the  genial  influence 
of  Henry  Clay,  who  paid  him  a  notable  visit  on 
returning  to  the  Senate,  won  his  fair  respect  as  the 
canvass  of  1848  approached.  He  records  his  disbelief 
in  judges  of  opposition  tendency  who  might  become 
"Federalists"  upon  the  bench  in  their  construction 
of  the  law.  Office-holders  under  Tyler's  administra- 
tion who  claimed  that  they  had  been  conservative 
Democrats  found  no  favor  with  him;  and  when  the 
Mexican  war  broke  out,  though  he  candidly  admitted 
that  Whigs  must  have  some  of  the  military  appoint- 
ments, his  repugnance  for  Winfield  Scott  as  the 
major-general  commanding  proved  inveterate,  and  he 
began  disparaging  Zachary  Taylor  as  soon  as  the 
latter's  renown  attracted  those  opposed  to  the  party 
in  power.  More  and  more  did  he  convince  himself, 
as  Taylor's  star  rose,  that  this  favorite  of  the  Whigs 
was  without  soldierly  qualities  except  as  a  fighter; 
and  he  refused  to  allow  a  salute  to  be  fired,  on  the 
news  of  Buena  Vista.  While  trying  earnestly,  more- 
over, to  assuage  the  factional  quarrels  of  his  party  in 
New  York  State,  he  pressed  constantly  the  idea  that 
principle  and  public  good  were  bound  up  in  the  con- 
tinuous success  of  the  Democracy.  In  religion  he 
shoAved,  as  a  Presbyterian,  the  same  rigid  and  in- 
flexible adherence  to  his  faith;  being  devout  and 
devoted  to  public  worship,  decent  not  to  fail  in 
attendance  upon  the  congressional  funerals  at  Wash- 
ington, of  which  there  were  many ;  and  so  much  of  a 
rigid  Sabbatarian  withal  that  he  repeatedly  recorded 
his  regrets  when  forced  to  transact  public  business  on 
Sunday,  though  some  of  the  most  crafty  work  of  his 


134  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

whole  term  was  despatched  on  that  day.  With  some- 
thing, perhaps,  of  religious  fervor,  he  seemed  imbued 
with  the  idea  that  he  led  God's  chosen  people ;  what- 
ever possessions  his  fellow-countrymen  might  appear 
to  covet  he  was  ready  to  go  for,  and  fetch,  with  little 
scruple  for  the  ownership  of  others.  Like  the  great 
Jackson,  he  felt  that  "might  makes  right "  in  national 
policy,  and  was  ready  to  despoil  our  Spanish- Ameri- 
can neighbors,  who  were  trying,  in  their  own  poor 
way,  to  emulate  our  example  of  self-government. 

Polk's  deficient  ideality  blinded  him  to  some  of  the 
inevitable  results  of  such  a  spoliation  in  debasing 
American  character  and  engendering  strife ;  and  the 
gradual  alienation  of  Democratic  leaders  from  his 
support  during  the  Mexican  war  he  ascribed,  possibly 
too  closely,  to  personal  grievances.  In  the  sectional 
struggle  for  partitioning  our  conquered  domains 
between  slavery  and  freedom  he  could  see  nothing 
but  "a  wicked  and  senseless  agitation,"  of  which 
selfish  statesmen  were  seeking  to  make  a  hobby. 
His  lost  political  friendships  he  imputed  unhesitat- 
ingly and  altogether  to  political  disappointments. 
Calhoun,  he  recalled,  had  been  dissatisfied  "ever 
since  I  did  not  retain  him  in  the  Cabinet."  Benton, 
whom  he  certainly  tried  most  assiduously  to  please, 
was  uncivil  to  him,  and  threatening  "  from  the  day  I 
appointed  a  court-martial  on  Fremont,"  his  son-in- 
law;  and  he  says,  not  untruly,  that  Benton  "is  apt 
to  think  that  nothing  is  properly  done  that  he  is  not 
previously  consulted  about."  Van  Buren  took  early 
offence,  he  thought,  because  the  new  President  would 
not  let  him  make  the  selection  of  the  Cabinet.  "I 
have  preserved,"  he  writes,  "his  most  extraordinary 
letter  to  me  on  that  subject,  making  no  reply  to  it; 
and  I  have  since  had  no  direct  correspondence  except 


PRESIDENT  POLK'S  DIARY.  135 

to  frank  him  two  annual  messages,  and  to  receive  his 
acknowledgment."  Van  Buren's  acceptance  of  the 
Free-Soil  nomination  for  President  in  1848  against 
the  regular  Democratic  candidate  moved  Polk  greatly. 
"He  is  the  most  fallen  man  I  have  ever  known," 
records  the  chief  magistrate  in  his  Diar}^;  and  he 
promptly  removed  Van  Buren's  personal  friend  from 
the  district  attorneyshi])  in  New  York,  appointing 
another  in  his  place. 

Mr.  Polk's  wife,  who  was  a  devout  religious  wor- 
shipper like  himself,  and  whose  decided  views  of 
social  decorum  strongly  impressed  the  White  House 
entertainments  of  her  day,  seems  to  have  shared  in 
some  of  her  husband's  personal  dislikes,  with  that 
redoubled  intensity  to  which  many  good  wives  incline. 
Her  antipathy  to  the  Van  Buren  family  was  shown 
in  her  bearing  towards  the  ex-President's  son,  famil- 
iarly styled  "Prince  John."  Her  husband  relates 
his  amusement  at  finding  that  she  had  on  two  or 
three  occasions  countermanded  his  own  order  direct- 
ing this  schismatic  Democrat  to  be  invited  to  a  White 
House  dinner,  and  that  on  one  occasion  she  burned  a 
dinner  ticket  which  the  President  had  requested  his 
private  secretary  to  send  him.  The  reason  she  as- 
signed was  that  John  Van  Buren  had  not  called  on  her ; 
but  we  may  question  whether  this  was  the  only  one. 

In  the  presidential  canvass  of  1848,  wdien  for  the 
first  time  our  national  elections  were  held  on  the 
same  day  throughout  the  Union,  under  an  act  of 
Congress,  Mr.  Polk  felt  strongly  interested  on  behalf 
of  the  regular  Democratic  ticket.  Lewis  Cass,  the 
party  candidate,  was  a  personal  friend,  considerate 
enough  to  show  his  letter  of  acceptance,  and  modify 
it  upon  President  Polk's  advice ;  particularly  on  the 
point  of  announcing  that  if  elected  he  would  carry 


136  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

out  liis  policy  according  to  the  convention  platform ; 
a  pledge  which  Mr.  Polk  thought  inexpedient  as  a 
rule.  Over  the  successorship  itself  Polk  had  main- 
tained a  strict  neutrality;  inflexibly  refusing  to  run 
for  a  second  term,  or  to  allow  the  use  of  his  name 
before  the  convention,  though  many  urged  him  to  do 
so.  He  passed  many  sick  days  during  this  campaign, 
and  had  much  apart  from  the  political  contest  to 
Avorry  him.  But  disastrously  as  the  election  turned 
out  for  his  party,  he  gained  in  composure  and  spirit 
when  all  was  over,  and  his  own  public  work  was 
substantially  done.  He  felt  proud  to  think  that, 
after  all,  he  had  finished  the  Mexican  war  success- 
fully before  his  retirement,  and  had  commenced 
reducing  the  public  debt  besides;  that  he  would 
leave  office  with  foreign  relations  everywhere  at 
peace,  and  no  troubles  to  transmit.  Towards  the 
New  York  "Barnburners,"  or  Free-Soil  Democrats, 
his  resentment  was  implacable ;  and  when  his  Secre- 
tary of  State,  always  bent  on  conciliating  the  doubt- 
ful elements,  selected  a  Rochester  newspaper  of  that 
party,  soon  after  election  day,  to  publish  the  laws  of 
the  United  States  for  a  year,  he  sternly  counter- 
manded the  choice,  refusing  to  allow  the  patronage 
of  public  printing  to  any  press  which  had  not 
approved  his  administration.  Buchanan,  unable  to 
satisfy  him  by  alleging  that  this  neivspaper  had  been 
moderate  in  its  opposition,  put  upon  the  President 
the  whole  responsibility  of  revoking  this  appoint- 
ment, and  Polk  accepted  it;  the  Secretary  drew  up  a 
letter  stating  that  this  revocation  was  at  the  Presi- 
dent's special  request,  and  the  President  permitted 
it  to  be  sent. 

Mr.  Polk  has  recorded  with  evident  relish  and  good 
nature  whatever  signs  of  civility  and  popular  respect 


PRESIDENT  POLK'S  DIARY.  137 

he  observed  during  tlie  last  few  weeks  that  he  occu- 
pied the  White  House.  Hundreds  of  callers  greeted 
him  in  the  East  Room  at  a  January  reception,  and  he 
walked  through  the  parlors,  delighted,  with  the 
famous  Mrs.  Madison  on  his  arm.  He  thought  it 
worth  while  to  write  out  in  his  Diary  a  recipe  for 
presidential  handshaking,  which  he  gave  to  some  of 
his  friends  orally  about  this  time :  "  If  a  man  surren- 
dered his  arm  to  be  shaken  by  one  horizontally,  by 
another  perpendicularly,  and  by  another  with  a  strong 
grip,  he  could  not  fail  to  suffer  severely  from  it; 
but  if  he  would  shake  and  not  be  shaken,  grip  and 
not  be  gripped,  taking  care  always  to  squeeze  the  hand 
of  his  adversary  as  hard  as  the  adversary  squeezed 
him,  he  would  suffer  no  inconvenience  from  it.  I 
can  generally  anticipate  a  strong  grip  from  a  strong 
man;  and  I  then  take  advantage  of  him  by  being 
quicker  than  he,  and  seizing  him  by  the  tip  of  his 
fingers."  "I  stated  this  playfully,"  he  adds,  "but  it 
is  all  true." 

When  his  chosen  successor  reached  Washington, 
in  February,  1849,  the  administration  naturally  felt 
some  embarrassment,  for  the  President's  treatment  of 
Zachary  Taylor  during  the  ^lexican  war  had  given 
the  latter  great  offence.  The  two  had  never  met  in 
person,  and  Buchanan,  over-anxious  as  usual,  would 
have  strained  official  etiquette  in  the  endeavor  to 
reconcile  them.  But  Polk  stood  properly  upon  his 
executive  dignity,  which  was  far  better,  and  waited 
for  what  was  due  him.  Nor  did  he  lose  by  doing  so ; 
for  Taylor,  bred  to  military  habits,  considerate  and 
kind-hearted,  paid  his  ceremonial  visit  to  the  White 
House  in  company  with  political  friends ;  and  Polk, 
reciprocating  the  courtesy,  gave  his  fellow-Southerner 
an  elaborate  dinner  party,  wdiich  was  attended  by  all 


138  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

the  Cabinet  officers  with  their  wives,  and  many  emi- 
nent men  of  both  parties.  "  All  went  off  in  the  best 
style,"  says  the  Diary,  "and  not  the  slightest  allusion 
was  made  to  political  subjects." 

Finally,  on  the  3d  of  March,  our  Democratic  Presi- 
dent closed  his  work  by  visiting  the  Capitol  to  sign 
bills  during  the  last  night  session  of  Congress.  He 
carried  with  him  a  carefully  written  veto  message  on 
internal  improvements,  to  use  if  needful ;  but  no  bill 
of  that  character  passed,  —  possibly,  one  might  sur- 
mise, to  his  own  regret,  for  he  made  record  that  he 
considered  that  unused  message  one  of  the  ablest 
papers  he  had  ever  prepared. 

Vice-President  Dallas,  who  served  through  this 
whole  four  years'  term,  eulogizes  Mr.  Polk  as  plain, 
unaffected,  affable,  and  kind  in  his  personal  deport- 
ment, with  a  consistent  simplicity  of  life  and  purity 
of  manners;  as  temperate  but  not  unsocial,  indus- 
trious but  accessible.  Concerning  Polk's  secretive 
disposition  and  quiet  persistency  in  his  plans,  more 
might  have  been  added.  But  Dallas  says  very  justly, 
"  He  left  nothing  unfinished ;  what  he  attempted  he 
did."  That  Polk  desired  to  be  well  remembered  by 
posterity  appears  from  his  will;  for,  being  childless, 
he  devised  his  estate  in  successive  interests  to  the 
worthiest  who  should  bear  the  name  of  Polk.  But 
this  singular  provision  was  lately  set  aside  in  the 
Tennessee  courts,  soon  after  the  widow's  death,  as 
void  for  perpetuity,  and  the  property  passed  abso- 
lutely to  his  legal  heirs,  —  a  new  instance,  among 
the  many  which  our  present  age  supplies,  of  the 
vanity  of  testamentary  wishes. 

In  another  article  I  shall  consider  President  Polk's 
public  policy  and  achievements,  as  illustrated  and 
made  clear  by  his  private  papers. 


PRESIDENT   POLK'S   ADMINISTRATION. 

The  great  achievements  of  President  Polk's 
administration  were  four  in  number:  the  full  estab- 
lishment of  the  independent  treasury,  which  divorced 
government  dealings  from  the  banks;  the  low  tariff; 
the  adjustment  of  a  northwest  boundary  with  Great 
Britain,  which  secured  our  title  to  Oregon;  and  the 
management  of  our  annexation  of  Texas,  by  diplomacy 
and  bloodshed,  so  as  to  despoil  Mexico  of  a  still 
further  portion  of  her  domains,  and  gain  a  broad 
southerly  area  to  the  Pacific,  inclusive  of  California 
and  New  Mexico.  All  four  of  these  achievements 
were  clearly  purposed  by  our  eleventh  President 
when  he  entered  upon  his  executive  duties;  in  all 
four  he  took  the  initiative,  so  far  as  possible,  before 
Congress  assembled  in  its  first  session  under  his 
term;  and,  with  the  co-operation  of  Congress,  he 
accomplished,  before  that  first  session  ended,  every 
one  of  the  projects  except  the  last,  which,  proving 
slow  and  difficult  of  fulfilment,  and  withal  develop- 
ing only  gradually  before  our  people  as  the  extent  of 
his  secret  purpose  revealed  itself,  he  despatched  as 
rapidly  and  surely  as  the  exigencies  would  permit. 
Before  another  presidential  election  he  had  wrought 
out  his  task  to  completion. 

I  shall  in  this  paper  i  consider  those  four  cardinal 
points  of  policy  only  so  far  as  the  testimony  afforded 

Re-printed  from  Atlantic  Monthly,  September,  1895. 
1  See  also  "President  Polk's  Diary,"  p.  121. 


140  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

by  Mr.  Polk's  papers,  and  especially  his  Diary,  may 
furnish  to  our  own  age  plain  illustration  and  proof  of 
historical  importance.  The  first  three  topics  may  be 
passed  over  rapidly.  The  sub-treasury  or  independent 
treasury  plan  originated  under  President  Van  Buren, 
as  a  Democratic  measure ;  but  when  the  Whigs  came 
into  power,  they  at  once  repealed  the  sub-treasury 
act  before  a  fair  trial  of  the  experiment,  meaning  to 
restore  the  former  national  bank  system,  which, 
however,  Plarrison's  untimely  death  and  the  Vice- 
President's  recreancy  debarred  them  from  doing.  In 
this  respect,  therefore,  Polk,  as  a  Democratic  Presi- 
dent, had  simply  to  restore  Democratic  policy  to  the 
national  finances,  and  the  Van  Buren  measure  was 
re-enacted,  to  remain  enduring.  "I  have  always 
been  for  the  independent  treasury,  like  Silas  Wright," 
records  this  new  President,  referring  to  the  imme- 
diate author  of  the  original  bill.  Next,  as  concerns 
the  low  tariff,  that  most  admirable  achievement  of 
this  new  administration,  Polk  was  a  strong  pioneer  in 
the  reduction  of  duties,  and  neither  the  fears  nor  the 
opposition  of  his  own  party  friends  could  divert  him. 
He  had,  to  be  sure,  equivocated  somewhat  in  his 
opinions  in  the  presidential  canvass  of  1844;  and 
when,  in  his  first  presidential  message,  he  boldly 
proposed  tariff  reform  in  this  open-trade  direction, 
ably  seconded  though  he  was  by  his  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  the  consternation  was  very  great  among 
Pennsylvanians  of  his  party.  Secretary  Buchanan, 
as  I  have  mentioned  elsewhere,  would  gladly  have 
left  the  Cabinet  and  gone  upon  the  supreme  bench  of 
the  United  States,  so  as  to  shirk  the  issue  with  his 
political  friends,  had  not  Polk  kept  back  his  promised 
appointment  to  the  place  until  the  legislative  struggle 
was  over,  thereby  committing  to  his  own  policy  the  aid 


PRESIDENT  POLK'S  ADMINISTRATION.     141 

which  he  needed.  Mr.  Polk  is  entitled  fairly  to  the 
fame  of  a  successful  experiment  on  the  basis  of  non- 
protection  and  liberal  trade  which  gave  to  this  country 
great  mercantile  prosperity  and  commercial  expan- 
sion down  to  the  Civil  War,  and  won  the  approval 
of  all  political  parties.  "The  tariff  portion,"  as  he 
states,  of  his  first  annual  message,  in  the  Diary,  "  is 
mine,  and  all  the  message  is  mine."  He  evidentl}^, 
and  mth  good  reason,  cherished  the  belief  that  such 
a  tariff,  framed  in  co-operation  with  Sir  Robert 
Peel's  corn  laws  and  England's  new  departure  for 
free  trade  with  the  world,  would  aid  in  uniting  the 
two  countries  more  closely  in  reciprocal  commerce, 
and  in  reconcihng  Great  Britain  to  concessions  most 
desirable  for  settling  the  Oregon  question.  While 
procuring  the  needful  enactment,  Polk's  Diary  shows 
him  in  his  former  and  most  familiar  character  of  a 
driver  of  business  through  the  national  legislature. 
We  see  him,  by  the  light  of  his  private  revelations, 
strongly  interesting  himself  in  the  progress  of  this 
tariff-reduction  measure  through  the  two  Houses 
during  every  stage,  setting  his  heart  upon  accomplish- 
ing the  work  wholly  and  at  once  during  the  first  and 
long  session  of  Congress ;  and,  with  this  end  steadily 
in  view,  we  perceive  him  forcing  it  through  with 
indefatigable  zeal  against  all  factional  opposition 
among  his  party  supporters,  and  in  spite  of  foreign 
war  and  other  dangerous  responsibilities  which  had 
accumulated  upon  his  hands  in  those  same  early 
months.  A  tariff-reduction  act  was  not  unpopular 
with  the  country  at  .large,  and  hence  the  House 
passed  it  with  comparative  harmony.  But  the  real 
struggle  came,  as  such  struggles  will,  in  the  Senate 
and  confederate  branch ;  and  upon  the  Democrats  of 
that  less  responsive  chamber  he  next  brought  to  bear 


142  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

all  the  personal  arguments  he  could  urge  in  private 
conference,  all  the  persuasion  of  Cabinet  officers,  all 
the  patronage  at  his  official  command,  for  gaining  his 
end. 

The  executive  anxiety  was  not  without  good  cause, 
for  Polk's  party  friends  were  so  much  divided  upon 
this  vexatious  issue  that,  after  the  best  efforts  of  the 
AVhite  House  were  exhausted,  the  fate  of  the  measure 
was  found  to  depend  finally  on  the  uncertain  vote  of 
a  single  Democratic  Senator.  The  casting  vote  of 
Vice-President  Dallas,  however,  carried  the  bill 
through  its  most  critical  stage,  after  which  the  act 
passed  the  Senate  by  a  majority  of  one.  On  the 
29th  of  July,  1846,  the  President  rejoiced  that  his 
tariff  measure  was  finally  passed,  and  he  felt  himself 
free  to  veto  a  river  and  harbor  act  which  came  also  to 
hand  for  his  signature. 

Upon  the  Oregon  boundary,  Polk's  Diary  opens 
with  confidential  interviews  which  Buchanan  had 
with  him  upon  the  subject,  while  negotiations 
remained  at  a  stand  after  the  compromise  of  boundary 
suggested  on  our  side  had  been  rejected  by  the  Eng- 
lish minister  in  discourteous  language,  which  Polk 
quickly  resented.  And  now  we  see  the  Secretary  of 
State  timorous  over  the  situation,  while  the  Presi- 
dent, confident  that  reflection  would  bring  the  adver- 
sary to  his  own  proposition,  waited  for  British 
overtures,  betraying  no  nervousness  and  willing  to 
bide  his  time.  In  spite  of  Buchanan's  dread,  our 
people  had  no  fight  for  the  line  of  54°  40",  though 
there  was  abundant  bluster  in  Congress  over  the  sub- 
ject. The  fair  compromise  line  was  in  due  time  pro- 
posed again,  this  time  by  Great  Britain's  negotiator, 
and  a  treaty  based  upon  that  settlement  was  promptly 
ratified  by  our  Senate  before  the  long  session  ended. 


PRESIDENT  POLK'S  ADMINISTRATION.     143 

Tims  happily  was  an  old  controversy  laid  at  rest;  and 
so  far  honorably,  as  Jefferson  had  borne  us  beyond 
the  Mississippi,  did  this  new  Democratic  Executive 
plant  American  colonization  firmly  upon  the  Pacific 
strand. 

But  the  fourth  object  to  which  the  President  had 
devoted  himself  from  the  outset  was  not  gained  so 
readily ;  and  vainly  imagining  that  he  could  buy  out 
Mexico  through  its  rulers,  and  gain  the  new  domain 
he  wanted  by  threats  or  cajolery,  he  was  cast  upon 
the  undesired  alternative  of  war  to  gain  his  end ;  and 
the  war  once  begun,  he  found  it  far  more  stubborn 
and  protracted  than  he  had  looked  for,  though  a  weak 
nation  was  our  foe.  The  love  of  liberty  and  of  terri- 
torial integrity  burns  strong  in  the  breasts  of  the 
humblest  of  republican  communities;  and,  whatever 
their  dissensions  with  one  another,  they  will  turn 
their  arms  unitedly  against  invaders  from  without, 
and  even  their  corrupt  leaders  would  rather  encour- 
age than  betray  them.  Polk  saw  clearly  what  our 
superior  American  people,  or  at  least  the  Southern 
portion,  coveted;  and  surely,  could  the  new  acquisi- 
tion have  been  fairly  gained,  the  precious  soil  was 
well  w^orth  our  permanent  acceptance.  But  what  we 
could  not  obtain  by  fair  means  Polk  set  himself  to 
acquiring  by  foul;  and  while  " Texas  re-annexation" 
had  been  the  immediate  aim  of  the  party  that  came 
with  him  into  power,  he  planned  and  carried  out  with 
remarkable  secrecy  and  constancy  a  dismemberment 
of  our  sister  republic  far  beyond  what  this  rallying 
cry  had  called  for  or  expected.  The  Diary  and  Cor- 
respondence, with  their  private  disclosures,  confirm 
the  worst  that  was  ever  imputed  to  this  administra- 
tion in  its  deadly  and  depredating  course.  But  Polk 
was  one  of  those  to  whom  the  end  justifies  the  means ; 


144  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

he  was  fully  imbued  with  the  reckless  spirit  of  mani- 
fest destiny  which  was  so  rampant  in  that  era,  and  he 
felt  himself  God's  chosen  instrument,  in  a  sense,  to 
advance  the  stars  and  stripes,  and  despoil  the  weak 
of  their  inheritance.  Such  was  the  prevalent  per- 
version of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  that  we  seemed 
actually  devoted  to  the  idea  of  making  converts  to 
the  republican  faith  of  the  rest  of  this  continent,  and 
encouraging  all  Spanish- American  neighbors  to  emu- 
late our  national  example  to  the  point  of  casting  off 
European  allegiance,  and  experimenting  in  the  same 
direction  with  ourselves,  only  for  the  sake  of  lead- 
ing them  to  misrule  and  internal  disorder,  so  as  to 
make  them  the  readier  prey  to  our  own  territorial 
greed.  Mr.  Polk  meant  to  vindicate  his  Mexican 
policy  by  the  private  papers  which  he  preserved  so 
carefully;  but  this  vindication  was  evidently  staked 
upon  the  expectation  that  public  gratitude  would 
redound  because  of  the  splendid  expansion  that  he 
gave  to  our  national  boundaries.  He  toiled  and  he 
despoiled  for  the  glory  of  the  American  Union ;  but 
he  could  see  nothing  wrong  in  his  despicable  treat- 
ment of  Mexico,  in  the  crime  he  perpetrated  against 
liberty  and  the  sacred  rights  of  property.  He 
was  not  the  kind  of  patriot  to  place  himself  at 
another's  point  of  view,  and  could  feel  no  tender 
compunctions  for  an  adversary,  and  least  of  all  for  a 
weak  one. 

Those  familiar  with  our  annals  will  recall  the  lead- 
ing facts  regarding  the  admission  of  Texas  into  the 
Union  in  1845.  AYrested  from  the  Mexican  confed- 
eracy and  people  by  American  colonists  and  adven- 
turers who  had  settled  within  its  neighboring  limits 
by  foreign  permission,  this  independent,  or  rather 
revolutionary  Texan  republic  sought  constitutional 


PRESIDENT  POLKS  ADMINISTRATION.     145 

alliance  with  the  United  States ;  and  after  that  suc- 
cessful presidential  canvass  in  which  the  Lone  Star 
issue  became  so  prominent,  our  Democratic  Con- 
gress, shortly  before  Polk's  accession,  passed  a 
provisional  act  for  admitting  into  the  Union  that 
foreign  but  adjacent  jurisdiction  as  a  new  State 
capable  of  subdivision.  But  in  order  to  unite  the 
wavering  party  elements  in  Congress,  this  admission 
act  placed  upon  our  Executive  the  alternative  of 
accepting  Texas  immediately  under  the  provisions 
therein  specified,  or  of  beginning  negotiations  anew 
with  that  republic  which  Mexico  still  claimed,  and 
postponing  annexation  indefinitely.  The  real  intent 
of  Congress  was,  of  course,  to  trust  the  incoming 
President  as  umpire ;  but  Tyler,  the  retiring  Execu- 
tive, eager  for  his  own  glory,  at  once,  and  just  before 
retiring  from  office,  chose  the  first  alternative,  and 
despatched  his  swift  messenger  to  Texas  with  the 
tender  of  immediate  annexation  and  admission  to 
State  membership.  Polk  might  consequently  have 
disclaimed  the  responsibility  of  a  decision;  but,  as 
his  papers  show,  he  assembled  his  Cabinet  soon  after 
his  term  began,  to  consider  whether  to  adopt  the  late 
President's  action  or  not:  and  upon  the  advice  of 
these  counsellors  he  pronounced  for  pursuing  the 
same  line  of  policy,  and  issued  appropriate  orders. 
Francis  P.  Blair,  who,  like  Benton  of  the  Senate, 
had  desired  indefinite  postponement  under  the  second 
alternative,  angrily  charged  Polk,  during  the  hot 
canvass  of  1848,  with  having  pledged  himself  to  the 
second  alternative  while  the  act  was  pending.  This, 
however,  Polk  has  emphatically  denied;  and  those 
who  best  knew  the  surrounding  circumstances  and 
had  been  intimate  in  the  confidence  of  the  President- 
elect —  among   them    Secretary   Buchanan  and    the 

10 


146  HISTOEIGAL  BRIEFS, 

manager  of  the  Texas  compromise  act,  Secretary 
Walker  —  corroborate  by  their  written  statements, 
preserved  among  Polk's  papers,  what  Polk  himself 
asserts,  and  all  those  cognizant  of  his  traits  of  char- 
acter might  naturally  look  for:  that  he  kept  his 
choice  of  plans  strictly  to  himself,  and  made  no 
pledge  in  advance  whatever.  But  this,  at  least,  Polk 
declares  unhesitatingly:  that  his  constant  desire  had 
been  to  have  Texas  admitted  into  the  Union  as  soon 
as  possible,  by  one  means  or  another,  and  hence  that 
the  first  alternative  was  his  silent  preference,  since  it 
best  secured  such  admission  practically.  "For  had 
annexation  by  negotiation  been  adopted,"  is  his  just 
comment  in  the  retrospect,  "  Texas  would  have  been 
lost  to  the  United  States." 

The  alternative  of  immediate  annexation  once 
decided  upon,  there  was  no  sign  of  feebleness  in  Mr. 
Polk's  pursuit  of  the  chosen  course.  To  Andrew  J. 
Donelson,  despatched  upon  this  mission,  the  Presi- 
dent wrote  June  15,  repeating  his  desires,  already 
expressed,  that  the  Texas  convention,  then  about  to 
meet,  should  accept  annexation  to  the  United  States 
unqualifiedly  and  at  once.  "That  moment,"  he 
writes,  "  I  shall  regard  Texas  as  part  of  the  Union ; 
and  our  army  and  navy  will  defend  and  protect  her 
by  driving  an  invading  Mexican  army  out. "  Donelson 
was  by  that  time  in  Texas;  and  Polk  promised  to 
send  an  additional  force  to  the  Gulf  the  next  day, 
leaving  him  to  his  own  discretion  in  employing  our 
troops  or  vessels  should  a  Mexican  army  cross  the 
Rio  Grande.  All  we  want,  he  says,  is  for  Texas  to 
assent  to  the  terms  of  our  statute,  and  he  will  not 
wait  for  the  tedious  process  of  forming  a  new  consti- 
tution. "Of  course,"  he  adds,  "I  would  maintain 
the  Texan  title  to  the  extent  which  she  claims  it  to 


PRESIDENT  POLKS  ADMINISTRATION.     147 

be,  and  not  permit  an  invading  enemy  to  occupy  a 
foot  of  the  soil  east  of  the  Rio  Grande."  In  this 
strain  President  Polk  wrote  to  Sam  Houston,  also, 
assuring  him  that  all  rights  of  territorial  boundary 
would  be  maintained,  if  only  Texas  would  accept 
unconditionally  the  act  of  our  Congress.  Here  we 
have  the  key  to  Polk's  whole  Mexican  policy:  w^hich 
was  to  adopt  the  pretentious  claim  set  up  lately  by 
the  Texan  revolutionists,  that  the  boundaries  of  that 
republic  extended  to  the  Rio  Grande,  and  over  unset- 
tled soil  which  the  Mexican  State  of  Texas  had  never 
included ;  and  then  to  manipulate  a  treaty  settlement 
with  Mexico  which  should  give  to  our  Union  another 
immense  fraction  of  that  unhappy  nation's  domains. 
By  pressure  upon  that  impoverished  country  Polk 
thought  himself  capable  of  driving  a  money  bargain 
with  her  pride.  Texas  embraced  her  opportunity 
to  the  fullest  extent,  and  voted  in  convention  to 
accept  the  terms  tendered  by  Congress,  and  enter  the 
American  Union  as  a  new  State ;  and  by  September 
16,  as  the  Diary  informs  us,  the  President  announced 
clearly  to  his  Cabinet  that  he  should  try  to  adjust, 
through  this  Texas  question  of  limits,  a  permanent 
boundary  between  Mexico  and  the  United  States,  so 
as  to  comprehend  Upper  California  and  New  Mexico, 
and  give  us  a  line  from  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Grande 
to  latitude  32°  north,  and  thence  west  to  the  Pacific. 
For  such  a  boundary  he  was  willing,  he  said,  to  pay 
840,000,000,  but  could  probably  purchase  it  for 
815,000,000  or  820,000,000.  In  these  views  the 
Cabinet  unanimously  concurred,  and  instructions  were 
given,  accordingly,  to  John  Slidell,  wdio  went  at  once 
as  a  special  minister  to  Mexico,  that  republic  having 
previously  broken  off  its  relations  with  us  because  of 
our  league  with  Texas.     But  this  September  confer- 


148  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

ence  followed  preparations  which  the  President  him- 
self had  already  secretly  started.  Slidell,  a  member 
of  the  House,  was  at  his  home  in  Louisiana  when 
sent  off;  but  there  are  indications  in  the  Diary  that 
he  had  been  fixed  upon  for  such  a  contingency  as  the 
present,  and  had  received  from  Polk  himself  oral  and 
strictly  confidential  instructions  before  he  left  Wash- 
ington in  the  spring.  Meanwhile,  Dr.  Parrott, 
Slidell 's  prospective  secretary  of  legation,  who  had 
been  in  the  city  of  Mexico  as  a  secret  emissary,  wrote 
from  there,  August  19,  that  Mexico  was  not  likely 
to  fight  the  United  States  over  the  admission  of  our 
new  State,  that  there  would  be  no  invasion  of  Texas, 
and  that  our  Executive  ought  to  restore  Mexican 
relations  if  he  could. 

In  much  of  the  underhand  work  of  1845  —  in  the 
instructions  sent  to  our  naval  officers  who  were  cruis- 
ing off  the  Pacific  coast,  for  instance  —  Polk  dared 
not  trust  himself  to  writing  out  contemporaneously 
in  his  own  journal ;  he  would  instruct  various  persons 
by  word  of  mouth,  and  enjoin  upon  them  the  utmost 
secrecy;  but  his  Diary's  later  allusions  aid  historical 
testimony  already  gathered  from  other  sources.  The 
Diary  of  May  30,  1846,  contains  the  President's  inci- 
dental admission,  at  that  tardy  date,  that  in  Slidell's 
instructions  of  1845  "the  acquisition  of  California 
and  New  Mexico,  with  perhaps  some  northern  pro- 
vinces," had  been  included.  Polk's  reticence  to 
others  he  practised  with  constant  constraint  for  him- 
self when  committing  his  Mexican  plans  privately  to 
paper;  for  in  all  this  he  meant  to  forestall  public 
opinion,  not  to  court  it,  believing  that  the  public 
results  would  justify  him  before  the  people. 

In  Polk's  private  correspondence  may  be  found 
General  Scott's  report  with  the  President's  indorse- 


PRESIDENT  POLK'S  ADMINISTRATION.     149 

ment,  dated  January  13,  1846,  in  justification  of  the 
famous  order  which  required  General  Taylor  to 
advance  from  Corpus  Christi  to  the  Rio  Grande.  Its 
preamble  is  worth  quoting  in  this  connection,  inspired 
as  it  probably  was  in  expression  by  the  commander- 
in-chief  or  Secretary  of  War:  "Congress  having 
accepted  the  constitution  adopted  by  the  State  of 
Texas,  in  convention  assembled,  in  which  constitu- 
tion the  Rio  Grande  del  Norte  is,  at  least  in  part, 
claimed  as  one  of  her  boundaries,  —  subject,  it  may 
be,  to  future  modification  in  part,  by  a  treaty  of  limits 
between  the  United  States  and  Mexico,"  —  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  through  the  War  Depart- 
ment, had  deemed  it  his  duty  to  give  instructions  to 
General  Zachary  Taylor  to  advance  and  occupy  such 
positions  at  or  near  Rio  del  Norte  as  might  be 
necessary. 

President  Polk  has  been  greatly  blamed  for  precipi- 
tating the  United  States  into  an  unrighteous  war 
with  Mexico,  and  at  the  same  time  placing  the  onus 
of  hostilities,  most  craftily  and  dishonestly,  upon  that 
republic.  The  familiar  phrases  of  his  message  will 
be  recalled :  "  Mexico  has  passed  the  boundary  of  the 
United  States,  has  invaded  our  territory  and  shed 
American  blood  upon  the  American  soil;"  "War 
exists,  and,  notwithstanding  all  our  efforts  to  avoid 
it,  exists  by  the  act  of  Mexico  herself."  The  real 
climax  as  shown  by  the  Diary  makes  his  dissimulation 
even  greater  than  has  been  supposed.  Saturday,  the 
9th  of  May,  1846,  was  a  memorable  one.  Slidell  was 
now  in  Washington,  having  returned  from  a  mission 
for  purchase  utterly  fruitless ;  and  Polk,  feeling  con- 
vinced that  nothing  but  war  would  give  us  the  treaty 
of  ample  cession  that  he  was  bent  upon  procuring, 
took  up  a  war  policy.     It  was  not  the  original  Texas 


150  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

which  had  won  its  independence  that  he  wanted  to 
annex,  for  Mexico  songht  no  recovery;  nor  was  it 
Texas  as  voted  to  the  Rio  Grande,  for  Taylor  held 
that  disputed  solitude  by  military  possession,  and 
was  the  real  aggressor;  but  it  was  a  new  and  broader 
belt  to  the  Pacific,  whose  clear  title  could  be  won,  as 
now  seemed  clear,  only  by  force  of  arms.  Congress 
being  in  the  midst  of  its  long  session,  the  President 
summoned  his  Cabinet  on  this  Saturday,  and  stated 
that  it  was  his  desire  to  send  to  the  two  Houses  an 
immediate  war  message.  But  no  news  of  any  armed 
advance  or  opposition  by  the  Mexicans,  or  of  blood- 
shed or  collision  of  any  sort,  had  yet  reached  Wash- 
ington from  the  front,  where  General  Taylor  with 
his  command  was  already  posted  to  make  the  disputed 
area  of  Texas  our  own.  The  Cabinet  as  a  whole 
advised  the  President  encouragingly,  but  Buchanan 
not  without  hesitation,  while  Bancroft,  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy,  gave  his  candid  opinion  that  we  ought 
to  wait  for  some  act  of  hostility  before  declaring  war. 
Polk's  Diary  shows,  however,  that  he  preferred  to 
recommend  war  as  matters  stood,  for  after  the  adjourn- 
ment he  made  his  preparations  to  write  a  message. 
But  a  new  and  sudden  turn  was  given  to  the  situation 
about  sunset  of  the  same  day,  when  despatches  from 
General  Taylor  reached  the  White  House  by  the 
Southern  mail,  reporting  that  slight  and  casual  attack 
by  Mexicans  and  loss  of  life  on  the  line  of  the  Rio 
Grande  which  has  since  passed  into  history.  Here 
then  was  the  opportunity  for  throwing  all  scruples 
aside;  and  that  Polk  made  the  most  of  this  casus 
hell%  of  this  shedding  the  first  drop  of  blood  by 
Mexico,  the  American  world  is  well  aware.  The 
Cabinet  were  summoned  once  more,  in  the  evening ; 
and  they  agreed   unanimously  that  a  war  message 


PRESIDENT  POLKS  ADMINISTRATION.     151 

should  be  sent  into  Congress  on  Monday,  based  upon 
this  new  state  of  facts.  But  would  not  that  war 
message  have  been  sent  the  same,  had  not  this  oppor- 
tune intelligence  arrived  from  the  front?  All  now, 
says  the  Diary,  was  unity  and  energy.  Mr.  Polk 
worked  all  Sunday  over  the  message,  except  for  his 
attendance  on  morning  church;  Secretary  Bancroft, 
who  took  dinner  with  him,  giving  his  skilful  literary 
aid  in  the  afternoon.  There  was  great  excitement  in 
Washington,  and  confidential  friends  of  the  Democ- 
racy were  preparing  to  have  Congress  co-operate. 
"It  was,"  records  the  President  piously,  but  with  no 
apparent  sense  of  the  unrighteousness  of  his  secular 
task,  "  a  day  of  great  anxiety  to  me,  and  I  regretted 
the  necessity  for  me  to  spend  the  Sabbath  in  the 
manner  I  have."  On  the  morning  of  Monday,  the 
momentous  11th  of  May,  Mr.  Polk  shut  out  com- 
pany, and  carefully  revised  this  war  message,  which 
he  sent  in  to  Congress  about  noon ;  and  such  was  the 
haste  of  preparation  that  he  had  not  time  to  read 
over  the  accompanying  executive  correspondence, 
though  he  had  seen  the  originals.  Slidell,  in  the 
afternoon,  called  upon  him,  to  announce  that  though 
the  bill  for  declaring  war  with  Mexico  passed  the 
House,  the  Senate  had  adjourned  without  action,  and 
evidently  not  united.  But  the  bill  Avent  through  that 
branch  on  Tuesday,  with  a  slight  amendment,  in 
which  the  House  concurred.  The  act  was  brought  to 
the  President  soon  after  the  noon  of  Wednesday, 
]May  13,  and  he  approved  and  signed  it;  and  an 
executive  proclamation  was  forthwith  issued  which 
announced  the  existence  of  war,  folloAving  the  example 
of  President  Madison  in  1812. 

But  there  were  already  symptoms  of  national  dis- 
sension to  impress  the  Cabinet  circle;  Buchanan,  at 


152  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

least,  among  Polk's  chosen  advisers,  showing,  besides 
his  characteristic  timidity,  some  forecast  of  the  public 
dangers  which  would  attend  this  new  greed  for  expan- 
sion. In  draughting  a  circular  to  our  ministers  in 
Europe,  which  announced  the  Mexican  war,  he  stated 
expressly,  and  as  though  to  allay  suspicion,  that  our 
object  was  not  to  dismember  Mexico  nor-  to  make 
conquest;  that  our  boundary  line  as  claimed  against 
that  republic  was  the  Rio  Grande.  This  draught 
was  read  at  the  Cabinet  meeting  on  this  same  13th  of 
May ;  and  the  Diary  gives  a  full  account  of  the  con- 
ference. "  I  will  not  tie  up  my  hands  by  any  such 
pledge,"  declared  the  President  at  once  and  decidedly. 
"In  making  peace  with  our  adversary,  we  shall 
acquire  California  and  New  Mexico  and  other  further 
territory,  as  an  indemnity  for  this  war,  if  we  can."  A 
warm  discussion  now  arose  in  the  Cabinet,  Buchanan 
contending  on  his  part  that  England  and  France 
would  in  that  case  help  Mexico  against  us;  for  as 
yet  the  Oregon  line  was  still  in  controversy  with 
Great  Britain.  But  again  did  the  President  refuse 
to  embarrass  his  course  by  any  such  pledge ;  nor,  he 
added,  would  he  tolerate  any  intermeddling  by  Euro- 
pean nations.  The  Secretary  of  State,  says  the  Diary, 
stood  alone  in  this  matter;  Marcy  being  absent  on 
account  of  business  pressure  at  the  War  Department. 
Secretary  Bancroft,  the  Attorney-General,  and  the 
Postmaster-General  all  sided  strongly  with  the  Presi- 
dent, while  Secretary  Walker  spoke  with  much  excite- 
ment against  the  draught  as  Buchanan  had  prepared 
it.  At  last,  to  end  discussion,  Mr.  Polk  stepped  to 
his  table  and  wrote  out  a  new  paragraph  in  place  of 
that  which  had  disclaimed  all  intention  of  further 
dismemberment;  and  Buchanan's  despatches,  when 
sent  abroad,   substituted  the  presidential  paragraph 


PRESIDENT  POLK'S  ADMINISTRATION.     153 

for  his  own.  "This,"  records  Polk,  "was  one  of  the 
most  earnest  and  interesting  discussions  which  have 
occurred  in  my  Cabinet,"  and  it  ended  a  day  "of 
intense  application,  anxiety,   and  labor." 

Some  authentic  explanation  has  long  been  wished 
of  Secretary  Bancroft's  naval  order,  dated  on  May  13, 
when  war  was  declared,  which  instructed  our  block- 
ading squadron  in  the  Gulf  to  permit  Santa  Anna, 
as  a  returning  exile  from  Havana,  to  pass  through 
with  his  suite,  unmolested.  The  historical  suspicion 
has  been  that  this  ex-President  and  military  chief  of 
Mexico  was  in  secret  concert  with  our  administra- 
tion; and  the  Polk  papers  make  that  suspicion  a 
certainty  by  their  revelations.  It  appears  from  the 
Diary  that  about  February  13,  18-46,  and  before  our 
Mexican  relations  had  culminated  in  war,  a  Spanish- 
American  officer  and  revolutionist  —  Colonel  Atocha 
by  name  —  held  a  secret  interview  at  Washington 
with  President  Polk,  and  gave  the  latter  the  impres- 
sion, while  Mexico  w^as  in  strong  public  commotion, 
that  Santa  Anna  had  sent  to  arrange  for  his  own 
restoration  to  the  head  of  the  Mexican  government, 
on  the  assurance  that  our  ends  would  be  gained  in 
return.  Mr.  Polk  consulted  his  Cabinet  upon  such 
an  arrangement,  and  with  their  consent,  though 
Buchanan  opposed,  despatched  his  confidential  agent 
to  Havana,  when  war  broke  out,  to  confer  with  the 
distinguished  exile.  That  agent  was  Commander 
Alexander  Slidell  Mackenzie,  of  the  navy,  to  whose 
rumored  mission  Mr.  Benton  alludes  in  his  "  Thirty 
Years'  View,"  though  more  slightingly,  perhaps, 
than  the  facts  justify.  Mackenzie's  despatches  to 
the  President,  which  were  received  at  Washington 
on  the  3d  of  August,  are  contained  in  full  in  the 
Polk  Correspondence.     It  appears  that  the  President 


154  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

made  tlie  Bancroft  order  to  our  blockading  squadron 
the  occasion  for  an  oral  message  to  Santa  Anna, 
which  Mackenzie  reduced  to  writing  and  read  to  the 
Mexican  general;  thereby  exceeding  his  authority, 
according  to  Polk's  Diary  record  of  January,  1848, 
since  he  should  have  delivered  it  orally.  In  course 
of  the  two  interviews  they  held  together,  Santa  Anna, 
as  Mackenzie  reports,  asserted  that,  if  in  power  once 
more  in  his  own  country,  he  would  make  concessions 
rather  than  see  Mexico  ruled  by  a  foreign  prince; 
that  he  preferred  a  friendly  arrangement  with  the 
United  States  to  the  ravages  of  war;  that  he  desired 
republican  principles  and  a  liberal  government,  exclud- 
ing all  mediation  of  England  and  France.  Santa 
Anna  advised  that  Taylor  should  advance  his  forces 
to  Santillo.  He  also  expressed  a  sense  of  his  own 
kind  treatment  while  a  prisoner  after  the  battle  of 
San  Jacinto,  and  said  that  if  he  did  not  return  to 
Mexico  he  should  like  to  become  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States,  and  live  in  Texas.  Santa  Anna  wrote 
a  paper,  it  seems,  for  submission  to  our  State  Depart- 
ment. It  is  hard  to  say  whether  Polk's  administra- 
tion, in  thus  co-operating  with  the  ablest  of  all 
Mexicans  of  the  age,  civil  or  military,  in  a  subtle  and 
sly  intrigue  for  revolutionizing  the  republic  with 
which  we  were  now  at  war,  was  not  overreached  in 
its  own  game;  at  all  events,  Santa  Anna,  with  his 
suite,  passed  our  blockading  line  to  Vera  Cruz  under 
the  Bancroft  order,  not  many  weeks  later,  re-entered 
his  country,  and  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  affairs ; 
proving  himself,  however,  after  having  done  so,  the 
most  energetic  and  persistent  of  all  Mexican  oppo- 
nents in  the  field,  instead  of  our  artful  ally  for 
dismemberment. 

Most  of  the  familiar  episodes  of  the  Mexican  war 


PRESIDENT  POLK'S  ADMINISTRATION.     155 

are  strongly  lighted  up  by  the  daily  entries  of  Polk's 
Diary:  his  strong  dislike  of  Scott,  and  his  increasing 
disparagement  of  Zachary  Taylor  as  the  latter  began 
to  be  talked  about  for  the  next  President;  the  earnest 
intrigue  in  the  administration  circle  to  supersede  both 
of  these  Whig  generals  by  the  Democratic  Benton, 
under  a  projected  measure  for  creating  a  lieutenant- 
general  to  outrank  them  both,  —  a  scheme  in  whicli 
Benton  personally  was  most  active;  the  failure  of 
such  a  bill  for  want  of  a  party  support  in  Congress, 
followed  by  Polk's  abortive  effort  to  bring  Benton 
into  the  field  as  one  of  the  new  major-generals,  and 
Benton's  haughty  refusal  of  a  commission  because 
the  President  would  not  retire  all  the  existing  major- 
generals  in  his  own  favor,  and  give  him  plenary 
powers  to  arrange  a  treaty  besides ;  ^  the  Calhoun 
"fencing  in"  plan  for  conducting  the  war  by  seizing 
and  holding  simply  the  territory  we  wanted,  which 
appears  to  have  been  first  broached  by  a  military 
officer,  but  was  dropped  upon  full  Cabinet  consulta- 
tion, because  such  inactivity  would  not  give  us  a 
parchment  title,  and  might  make  the  war  too  unpopu- 
lar  at  home  to  be  borne ;  Polk's  disgust  upon  finding 
that  the  Whigs  were  having  this  war  to  their  own 
party  account,  while  he  bore  all  the  odium  of  it; 
Scott's  quarrels  at  the  front,  and  his  recall  after  the 
capture  of  the  city  of  Mexico ;  Trist,  the  clerk  of  the 
State  Department,  and  his  troubles  over  a  treaty 
which  he  could  not  procure  in  a  satisfactory  form 
until  he  had  ceased  to  be  an  accredited  agent  for 
negotiating  one.  Many  were  the  mean  expedients 
brought  forward  from  time  to  time   for  heading  off 

1  "The  difficulty/-'  records  Polk  iu  his  Diary,  "is  about  recalling 
Butler  and  Patterson"  (the  Democratic  major-generals).  "I  would 
have  recalled  Scott  and  Tavlor." 


156  HISTORICAL   BRIEFS. 

public  opinion  in  the  unhappy  republic  whose  patriot- 
ism thwarted  us.  Our  Executive  at  first  employed 
Roman  Catholic  priests  with  his  invading  army,  — 
"not,"  says  the  Diary,  "as  chaplains,"  but  because 
"they  spoke  the  Mexican  language"  and  might 
"undeceive"  the  adversary;  and  in  their  last  straits, 
Polk  and  his  Cabinet  had  nearly  decided  to  help  the 
peace  party  of  Mexico  into  power  if  they  would  exe- 
cute in  due  form  the  desired  treaty  of  peace  and 
dismemberment. 

At  last,  however,  with  all  this  fair  domain  our  own 
prize,  Mr.  Polk  viewed  with  alarm  and  evident  sur- 
prise the  portentous  aspect  of  the  slavery  struggle 
which  this  war  had  aroused  among  his  own  people. 
He  feared  that  such  an  agitation  would  "  destroy  the 
Democratic  party,  and  perhaps  the  Union;"  though 
slavery  had,  as  he  believed,  "no  legitimate  connec- 
tion with  the  war  into  Mexico,  being  a  domestic,  not 
a  foreign  question."  But  with  this  premonition,  and 
to  check  the  "worse  than  useless  discussion,"  this 
"wicked  agitation,"  he  publicly  proposed  extending 
the  Missouri  Compromise  line  across  to  the  Pacific, 
and  considered  himself  a  national  umpire  in  doing  so. 
This  adjustment  failing  in  Congress,  it  is  due  to 
President  Polk  to  say,  further,  that  during  the  last 
weeks  of  his  official  term  he  showed  himself  in  private 
counsel  a  true  lover  of  the  Union,  like  Jackson  before 
liim,  strongly  contrasting  with  Calhoun  and  many 
otiiers  of  his  own  slaveholding  section.  The  Diary 
records  an  interview  which  he  held  at  the  White 
House  with  Calhoun  January  16,  1849,  at  the  time 
when  the  latter  was  gathering  Southern  congressmen 
into  caucus,  and  trying  to  combine  them  for  an  inflam- 
matory appeal  to  Southern  constituents.  Mr.  Polk 
thought   that   movement   mischievous,    and   on   this 


PRESIDENT  POLK'S  ADMINISTRATION.     157 

occasion  expressed  to  the  great  nullifier  his  own  strong 
attachment  to  the  Union  and  his  wish  to  preserve  it. 
With  reference  to  our  new  domain,  which  was  being 
peopled  so  rapidly  in  the  Sacramento  region  since  the 
gold  discovery,  Polk  now  took  the  very  ground  which 
Zachary  Taylor  occupied  soon  after  as  his  successor. 
"California  might  be  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a 
State,  and  so  might  even  New  Mexico;  and  thus  we 
should  get  rid  of  the  Wilmot  antislavery  proviso," 
said  Polk:  "and  this  is  the  only  practical  mode  of 
settling  the  territorial  question,  —  to  leave  the  new 
States  to  themselves  and  arrest  this  slavery  agitation." 
To  this  Calhoun  expressed  himself  opposed.  He  said 
California  ought  not  now  to  be  admitted  as  a  State, 
because  slaveholders  had  found  no  opportunity  to  go 
there,  and  it  was  sure  to  become  a  free  State;  now 
was  the  time  for  the  South  to  resist  Northern  aggres- 
sions. The  two  parted  in  disagreement;  and  the 
President,  commenting  in  his  journal  upon  this  inter- 
view, declares  himself  satisfied  that  Calhoun  does  not 
want  the  question  settled,  that  he  desires  disunion. 
"I  set  my  face  against  all  this,"  he  records:  "let 
California  decide  slavery  or  no  slavery,  and  no  South- 
ern man  should  object." 

Polk's  Diary  discloses  a  secret  chapter  in  the  expan- 
sion policy  of  this  industrious  administration  which 
deserves  a  final  notice.  No  sooner  had  the  Mexican 
war  been  brought  substantially  to  a  close  before  our 
untiring  President  undertook  the  annexation  of  Cuba. 
On  the  30th  of  May,  1848,  just  as  a  new  presidential 
canvass  was  opening,  and  even  before  ratifications 
had  been  exchanged  and  peace  secured  with  Mexico, 
Polk  broached  this  other  matter  to  his  Cabinet;  but 
by  this  time  he  had  learned  a  lesson  in  self-constraint, 
and  restricted  his  proposal  to  that  of  a  fair  purchase, 


158  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

disclaiming  all  wish  for  a  forcible  annexation.  His 
Cabinet  were  evidently  divided  at  first  on  this  subject, 
and  the  Northern  portion  of  it  nervous  and  distrust- 
ful ;  Robert  J.  Walker  and  John  Y.  Mason  being  his 
chief  supporters  in  the  council.  Buchanan  objected 
that  it  would  be  a  firebrand  in  the  presidential  can- 
vass; but  Cass,  the  party  candidate,  had  declared 
himself  quite  ready  and  willing  to  risk  his  chances 
upon  such  an  issue.  On  the  6th  of  June  Polk 
brought  the  subject  up  again ;  insisting  that  a  propo- 
sition of  purchase  should  be  made  through  our  minis- 
ter in  Spain.  A  day  or  two  after  came  confirmation 
of  a  speedy  peace  with  Mexico,  and  Polk  made  it 
clear  to  his  doubting  advisers  that  he  had  no  treach- 
erous plans  in  reserve.  Cubans  were  at  this  time  in 
insurrection ;  and  General  Quitman,  so  gallant  on  the 
Mexican  battlefields,  would  gladly  have  sailed  with  a 
force  of  our  returning  volunteers  upon  a  filibustering 
expedition.  But  this,  said  the  President,  he  could 
not  connive  at ;  he  proposed  taking  no  part  in  Cuban 
revolutions,  but  to  let  Spain  know  that  we  meant  to 
keep  back  our  American  troops;  at  the  same  time 
notifying  that  power  of  our  willingness  to  offer  a 
price  for  the  island.  In  this  form,  says  the  Diary, 
the  Cabinet  unanimously  agreed  to  the  President's 
proposal ;  even  Buchanan  assenting  with  the  rest.  A 
few  days  after,  Mr.  Polk  made  his  offer  in  due  form 
by  a  despatch  transmitted  to  Minister  Saunders  at 
Madrid ;  sending  him  a  power  to  treat  for  Cuba,  with 
a  hundred  million  dollars  as  the  limit  of  a  purchase, 
—  and  all  this  "  prof oundly  confidential. "  There  is  a 
later  record  of  September  16  in  Polk's  journal,  stat- 
ing that  an  important  despatch  from  Minister  Saunders 
at  Spain  was  read  in  the  Cabinet.  What  its  purport 
was  the  Diary  does  not  indicate,  but  doubtless  Spain 


PRESIDENT  POLK'S  ADMINISTRATION.     159 

repulsed  our  overtures ;  and  there  the  matter  dropped. 
With  a  Whig  President  chosen  by  the  people  a  few 
weeks  later,  this  subject,  and  in  fact  all  schemes  for 
further  territorial  aggrandizement,  became  indefinitely 
postponed. 

Final  Note. — The  two  foregoing  articles  seem  to  embrace  by- 
statement  or  allusion  all  the  valuable  historical  matter  to  be  found  in 
President  Polk's  Diary.  One  special  subject  of  Polk's  repeated  com- 
ment is  perhaps  worth  adding,  however,  in  connection  with  our  diplo- 
matic intercourse  at  Washington,  as  he  found  it.  The  President  was 
not  a  little  amused,  as  well  as  annoyed,  over  a  custom  which  prevailed, 
as  he  tells  us,  among  the  European  ministers,  of  making  each  royal 
birth  the  occasion  of  a  formal  call  and  pompous  announcement  at  the 
White  House.  "  Amusing  and  ridiculous,"  he  calls  this  custom  ;  and 
he  records  an  instance  where  the  Queen  of  Portugal  had  a  still-born 
child,  and  the  representative  of  that  country,  making  his  ceremonious 
visit,  dilated  upon  the  Queen's  sufferings  "as  minutely  as  though  he 
had  been  the  midwife  or  attendant  physician,"  Polk,  it  will  be  re- 
membered by  our  reader,  was  a  childless  married  man.  His  usual 
response  at  these  parturition  interviews,  so  his  Diary  informs  us,  con- 
sisted in  a  grave  congratulation  that  the  direct  royal  line  was  not 
likely  to  fail ;  and  this  assurance  he  found  himself  giving  repeatedly 
in  the  case  of  Great  Britain,  whose  minister  informed  him  that  he 
was  in  the  habit  of  making  such  announcements  once  a  year. 


REFORM  IN  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTIONS. 

For  more  than  a  hundred  years  our  Federal  Con- 
stitution has  been  in  full  operation ;  and  yet  ninety 
years  have  elapsed  since  the  proposal  and  adoption  of 
any  amendment  to  that  instrument  except  those  three 
which  abolished  human  slaveiy  and  closed  the  Civil 
War.  Not  a  single  State  of  the  Union  shows  such 
stagnation  in  constitutional  reform.  On  the  con- 
trary, our  increasing  States,  each  in  its  own  jurisdic- 
tion, have  modelled  and  remodelled  their  fundamental 
institutions,  to  check  legislative  and  other  abuses  and 
yield  more  closely  to  popular  control;  yet  the  anti- 
quated machinery  of  the  Federal  Government  still 
creaks  on  in  its  operations  unchanged,  exposing  us 
repeatedly  to  the  dangers  of  national  anarchy  and 
confusion. 

I  speak  of  constitutional  machinery  alone;  for  as 
concerns  the  general  scheme  of  our  government  and 
the  general  distribution  of  State  and  Federal  powers, 
I  offer  no  criticism.  Our  fathers  framed  wisely  in 
those  latter  respects,  and  custom  and  precedent  have 
aided  the  development  of  good  results.  A  national 
policy  may  well  be  an  elastic  policy,  leaving  much  for 
contingencies  to  shape.  It  is  not  to  the  fundamental 
system,  then,  of  our  American  Union,  but  to  the 
mode  of  bringing  rulers  and  representatives  into 
power,  that  I  would  ask  the  reader's  attention.     The 

Reprinted  from  "The  Forum/'  Jamiary,  1895. 


REFORM  m  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTIONS.    161 

recent  proposition  to  choose  Senators  by  the  people  of 
a  State  is  well  worth  considering ;  so,  too,  are  some 
of  those  checks  upon  legislative  action  now  so  com- 
mon in  our  modern  State  constitutions,  such  as  might, 
for  instance,  prevent  a  mere  casual  majority  in  the 
t^vo  branches  of  Congress  from  annexing  foreign 
territory  or  admitting  new  States  capriciously  with- 
out reference  to  popular  approval  or  sanction.  I  con- 
fine myself  here  to  desirable  reforms  in  the  method  of 
Presidential  elections,  and  in  the  relation  of  both 
Presidential  and  Congressional  terms  to  the  popular 
elections  of  a  biennial  November. 

In  the  first  place,  our  anomalous  method  of  choos- 
ing the  Chief  Executive  by  electoral  colleges  has 
become,  in  the  course  of  a  century,  not  only  a  sense- 
less but  a  dilatory  and  dangerous  duplication.  We 
know  how  utterly  the  expedient  of  1787,  for  obstruct- 
ing popular  suffrage  on  a  national  scale,  has  failed  of 
its  original  purpose ;  and  how  truly,  in  consequence, 
the  quadrennial  assemblage  of  our  present  age,  when 
millions  of  voters  undertake  on  an  autumn  day  to 
choose  by  their  own  ballots  a  President  and  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States,  has  become  in  spirit 
a  complete  perversion  of  what  the  Constitution  itself 
intended.  Yet  the  letter  of  that  instrument  remains; 
and  the  people  of  each  State  still  choose,  after  all, 
simply  Presidential  electors,  just  as  the  several  legis- 
latures chose  them  formerly,  and  as  South  Carolina's 
chose  them  continually  down  to  the  Civil  War.  So 
far  as  Federal  fundamental  law  is  concerned,  a  State 
legislature  may  still  at  any  time  take  the  direct  choice 
of  Presidential  electors  to  itself,  depriving  the  State 
voters  of  such  suffrage;  and  more  than  this.  Presi- 
dential electors,  whether  popularly  chosen  or  not, 
have  only  a  moral  obligation  to  cast  their  votes  after- 

11 


162  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

ward,  in  the  college,  for  the  candidates  previously 
designated.  The  whole  sanction,  in  short,  upon 
which  popular  expression  rests  in  the  selection,  every 
four  years,  of  President  and  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States  —  the  whole  assurance  of  legal  title  to 
a  valid  succession  —  is  each  individual  elector's  own 
pledge  of  honor  to  vote  in  the  college  as  he  was 
chosen  to  vote  in  November. 

The  original  provisions  of  our  Constitution,  indeed, 
were  soon  found  so  faulty  with  respect  to  Presidential 
elections  in  other  particulars,  that  after  the  famous 
tie  vote  in  1800,  between  Jefferson  and  Burr,  when 
President  and  Vice-President  were  not  named  apart, 
those  provisions  had  to  be  amended.  But  two  prime 
evils  of  the  original  plan  still  confront  us,  showing 
how  utterly  unsuited  are  those  provisions  to  the 
present  republican  age :  (1)  Colleges  of  electors  still 
elect  the  Executive ;  and  consequently  the  choice  of 
a  Chief  Magistrate  is  not  legally  made  in  early 
November,  but  about  a  month  later ;  and  in  addition 
to  the  injurious  delay,  the  voter  who  casts  his  ballot 
for  electors  at  the  polls  is  exposed  not  only  to  peculiar 
misconceptions  concerning  his  own  functions,  but  to 
the  far  more  insidious  danger  that  corrupt  and  crafty 
politicians  may  yet,  at  some  later  crisis,  when  voting 
runs  close,  baffle  the  wishes  of  the  people.  (2)  Nor 
does  a  plurality  of  votes,  even  in  the  electoral  col- 
leges, finally  elect  the  President ;  for  the  Constitution 
still  adheres  to  the  eighteenth-century  rule  requiring 
a  complete  majority,  in  default  of  which  the  eventual 
choice  devolves  upon  the  Legislature,  or  rather  upon 
one  branch  of  it.  To  this  latter  solecism,  common 
enough  in  State  politics  a  hundred  years  ago,  but 
long  since  repudiated  upon  bitter  State  experience, 
public  attention  has  not  been  drawn  as  it  should  be. 


REFORM  IN  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTIONS.    163 

All  American  experience  is  to  the  practical  conclusion 
that,  desirable  though  a  majority  choice  must  always 
be,  it  is  much  better  to  let  the  candidate  who  has  a 
popular  plurality  on  the  first  trial  at  the  polls  come 
in  over  all  competitors,  than  to  vote  over  again,  or  to 
refer  the  ultimate  selection  of  a  Cliief  Magistrate 
elsewhere. 

Nor  is  it  to  an  incoming  Congress,  but  to  a  retiring 
one,  and  often  in  effect  to  a  defeated  and  dishonored 
one,  —  and  in  fact,  to  a  House  of  Representatives, 
voting  by  States,  which  was  constituted  two  years 
earlier,  —  that  our  Federal  plan  confides  this  moment- 
ous choice  of  a  President  whenever  no  candidate  has 
received  an  electoral  majority.  What  State  would 
trust  any  assembly  for  so  solemn  an  arbitrament  short 
of  that  Legislature  which  was  chosen  at  the  time 
when  the  Executive  was  voted  for?  Our  national 
perils  in  this  respect  have  been  less  only  because  the 
national  choice  was  more  seldom ;  but  with  each  new 
election  the  results  at  stake  become  more  tremendous 
and  the  temptation  to  trifle  with  public  opinion  more 
pronounced.  Whenever,  as  happened  in  1892  and 
may  happen  again,  some  third  party  is  strong  enough 
to  carry  a  State  or  two,  or  political  issues  have  tem- 
porarily faded  out,  and  the  choice  lies  chiefly  as 
among  individuals,  "bargain  and  corruption"  may 
once  more  be  the  cry  over  an  election  by  the  House, 
as  it  was  in  1825,  and  with  far  more  substantial 
reason.  Two  years  ago,  during  the  last  Presidential 
canvass,  and  while  the  chances  appeared  close  in 
October,  two  distinct  conspiracies,  for  forestalling 
final  results  and  controlling  the  succession  lest  the 
choice  should  devolve  upon  a  House  already  Demo- 
cratic, were  divulged  by  the  press  to  augment  the 
popular  uneasiness.     One  was  for  the  friends  of  the 


164  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

third  candidate  to  keep  an  eventual  election  for 
the  colleges  to  decide  in  December,  by  causing  their 
own  Presidential  electors  to  invite  bids  for  Populist 
principles  from  the  two  highest  candidates,  and  then 
turn  the  scales  as  between  them.  The  other  plan 
was  from  another  quarter,  to  resist  all  choice  by  the 
House  as  then  constituted,  upon  the  claim  that  its 
representation  had  not  been  based  upon  the  new 
census  of  1890,  and  ought,  therefore,  to  be  changed. 
From  such  dangers,  which  might  otherwise  have 
become  positive  ones,  a  sweeping  majority  of  electoral 
votes  for  Mr.  Cleveland  delivered  us. 

Still  another  Constitutional  change  is  highly  desir- 
able in  the  same  connection,  and,  I  might  add,  for  all 
our  biennial  elections  to  Congress,  in  order  to  give 
symmetry  to  our  national  system  of  government  and 
to  adapt  it  to  this  modern  age.  We  should  abridge 
the  present  long  interval  which  elapses  between  the 
popular  vote  and  the  entrance  of  a  new  Administra- 
tion and  a  new  Congress  upon  their  several  responsi- 
bilities. Considering  that  a  new  Presidency  lasts 
but  four  years  and  the  term  of  a  new  Congress  but 
half  that  time,  our  present  waste  of  national  energy 
is  very  great,  and  needlessly  so.  "VVe  have  profited 
much  in  the  advance  of  popular  suffrage  by  leaving 
tests  and  qualifications  in  all  national  voting  to  State 
discretion.  We  have  gained  in  national  concentra- 
tion by  compelling  a  uniform  day  to  be  observed 
throughout  the  Union  for  choosing  the  Presidential 
electors.  But  another  change  still  more  desirable 
(could  only  a  Constitutional  amendment  be  had) 
would  be  to  bring  a  newly  elected  Administration 
more  speedily  into  power,  and  a  newly  chosen  House 
of  Representatives  and  Congress  besides. 

Ever  since  1804,  "the  fourth  of  March,"  originally 


REFORM  IN  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTIONS.    165 

an  accidental  date,  has  been  graven  into  the  very 
tablet  of  our  Federal  Constitution.  That  day  of  the 
month  and  year,  with  its  variable  weather,  is  hardly 
suitable  in  the  Potomac  latitude  for  out-of-door 
pageants  and  parades,  as  we  well  know.  In  fact, 
inauguration  weather  at  Washington  on  the  two 
latest  occasions  was  as  unfit  as  possible  for  the  mili- 
tary procession  and  the  ceremonials  at  the  east  front 
of  the  capitol.  But  what  then  ?  Some  have  seriously 
proposed,  in  propitiation  of  the  weather,  that  the 
Constitution  be  so  amended  as  to  inaugurate  each 
new  Executive  toward  the  close  of  spring.  But  this 
would  be  reform  in  the  wrong  direction.  Mere  cere- 
monials, anywhere  or  at  any  time,  are  liable  to 
capricious  weather,  and  may  readily  conform  to  cir- 
cumstances. The  paramount  interest,  however,  of 
the  people  of  this  Union  is  to  have  their  declared  will 
carried  expeditiously  into  effect ;  and  from  that  pre- 
ferable point  of  view,  whatever  Constitutional  amend- 
ment substitutes  some  other  date  for  the  fourth  of 
March  will  require  America's  inauguration  day  to  be 
moved  backward  and  not  forward. 

Constitutional  reforms  are,  indeed,  difficult  to 
carry;  but  this  is,  more  than  anything  else,  because 
the  people  are  not  aroused  to  considering  them. 
Where  the  change  proposed  is  not  likely  to  excite 
party  opposition,  nor  to  inflame  State  or  sectional 
jealousy,  it  is  worthy,  at  least,  of  consideration  and 
effort.  State  constitutions  have  borne  much  salutary 
improvement;  and  we  ought  not  to  persuade  our- 
selves that  constructive  inspiration  in  whatever  per- 
tains to  the  welfare  and  stability  of  the  whole  Union 
perished  with  the  Revolutionary  fathers.  Let  us  set 
ourselves,  then,  to  repairing  the  weak  joints  of  this 
constitutional  armor,  where  almost  all  else  is  strong. 


166  HISTORICAL  BRIEFS. 

The  present  basis  for  an  electoral  proportion  by 
States  has  its  merits  and  need  not  be  exchanged  for  a 
numerical  poll  of  the  whole  Union;  but,  in  either 
case,  we  should  sweep  out,  once  and  for  all,  this 
dangerous  and  superfluous  electoral  college,  and  set 
each  State  to  devoting  the  month  which  follows  the 
November  vote  to  its  own  official  registry  of  State 
results.  We  should  abolish  the  present  intervention 
of  a  House  of  Representatives,  or  reduce  it  to  the 
remote  contingency  of  a  tie  between  the  candidates, 
trusting,  as  in  State  elections,  to  the  rule  that  a 
popular  plurality  shall  elect,  once  and  for  all.  The 
House  of  Representatives,  and  the  Congress,  to  revise 
results  and  formally  announce  the  choice,  should  be 
the  incoming  and  newly  chosen,  and  not  the  out- 
going, one;  and  all  concerting  opportunity  for  mis- 
chief between  a  Congress  and  an  Administration 
already  delegated  to  retirement  —  all  such  opportunity 
as  embarrassed  and  paralyzed  the  country  so  greatly 
in  1860  if  not  in  1876  —  should  be  reduced  to  a  mini- 
mum. With  a  month  gained  by  the  abolition  of 
electoral  colleges,  it  would  not  be  difficult  for  a  newly 
chosen  Congress  to  enter  upon  its  functions  at  New 
Year's;  and  for  the  new  Executive  in  alternate 
Congresses  to  be  installed  then  or  soon  after,  follow- 
ing the  common  example  of  the  States.  An  adjourn- 
ment of  Congress,  long  enough  to  give  a  new 
President  time  to  make  up  his  Administration  and 
formulate  a  policy,  might  perhaps  be  provided;  but 
the  United  States  is  scarcely  a  representative  govern- 
ment at  all,  if  public  agents  elected  to  meet  existing 
conditions  must  invariably  begin  their  work  under 
later  ones,  at  the  same  time  that  they  are  liable 
to  stand  long  in  the  way  after  they  have  been 
superseded. 


BIOGRAPHY. 


BIOGRAPHY. 


They  who  counselled  the  present  collection  of 
fugitive  essays,  thrown  off  in  the  intervals  of  a  more 
laborious  occupation,  have  wished  it  accompanied  by 
a  biographical  sketch  of  the  author  more  complete 
and  confiding  than  the  Cyclopedia  is  supposed  to 
contain.  They  have  claimed  that  the  memoir  of  one 
who,  in  spite  of  peculiar  drawbacks,  has  gained 
already  so  just  renown  in  the  triple  pursuits  of  law, 
history,  and  University  instruction,  deserves  to  be 
written  out.  Many  among  the  thousands  who  have 
studied  with  profit  one  or  another  of  his  books  or 
listened  to  his  class  lectures,  desire  to  know  some- 
thing more  regarding  the  methods  of  work  and  the 
personal  experience  of  a  scholar  whose  prodigious 
industry  and  productiveness  they  better  apprehend 
than  the  actual  course  of  his  somewhat  secluded  life. 
And  there  are  others  who  ask  infonnation  concerning 
the  author's  father,  —  a  prominent  figure  in  American 
journalism  and  politics  for  so  many  years,  and 
Adjutant-General  of  Massachusetts  through  the  Civil 
War,  but  whose  memory  since  his  death  has  been 
fading  into  oblivion.  A  disposition  to  gratify  such 
wishes  should  not  be  ascribed  to  personal  vanity; 
but  rather  to  a  genuine  desire  to  be  helpful.  It  is 
not  necessarily  the  most  romantic  and  adventurous 


170  BIOGRAPHY. 

lives  that  call  for  description.  There  is  room  besides 
for  heroic  example  in  the  pathway  which  lies  beaten 
by  common  travel.  The  silent  power  is  often  found 
the  strong  power.  Triumph  over  obstacles  remains 
the  theme  that  most  strongly  appeals  to  the  human 
heart ;  and  such  triumphs  should  be  the  lasting  theme 
of  biography. 

James  Schouler,  the  subject  of  our  present 
sketch,  was  born  in  West  Cambridge  (now  Arling- 
ton), Massachusetts,  on  the  20th  of  March,  1839,  the 
second  of  a  family  of  five  children,  and  the  oldest  son 
of  William  and  Frances  Eliza  (Warren)  Schouler. 
So  singular  a  surname  has  misled  many  as  to  its 
spelling  and  pronunciation ;  and  the  more  so  in  these 
later  years,  when  we  find  the  German  stock  entering 
so  largely  into  American  life,  and  the  German  lan- 
guage and  literature  so  familiar.  Not  unfrequently 
the  first  three  letters  of  this  surname  receive  the  soft 
German  sound,  as  though  the  word  were  some  varia- 
tion of  the  German  "Schuler."  The  hard  sound  is 
the  proper  one,  and  the  word  if  fully  Americanized 
would  be  "School-er."  For  the  real  surname  is  not 
German  but  Scotch;  its  true  Scotch  spelling  is 
"Scouler,"  and  while  our  author  comes  of  good 
Massachusetts  and  Revolutionary  stock  in  the  mater- 
nal line,  he  belongs  on  his  father's  side  to  the  first 
generation  of  the  family  born  on  American  soil.^ 
"My  paternal  grandfather,"  he  writes,  "from  whom 
I  am  named,  and  who  first  brought  our  '  Scoulers  '  to 
America,  appears  to  have  judiciously  adopted  for 
a  while  the  American  spelling   of    '  Schooler ; '  but 

^  Other  Scotch  "Scoullers,"  it  appears,  have  established  them- 
selves in  America  at  one  time  or  another.  There  is  a  Pennsylvania 
family,  for  instance,  which  traces  its  emigration  to  1752  from  Lanark- 
shire. 


BIOGRAPHY,  171 

about  the  time  his  sons  grew  to  manhood  and  he  him- 
self became  a  person  of  some  property  and  conse- 
quence —  partly  perhaps  as  the  result  of  a  visit  which 
he  then  made  to  the  old  country  and  his  Scotch 
relatives  —  our  surname  on  this  side  of  the  water 
acquired  its  present  hybrid  form,  complimentary  to 
both  Scotland  and  America,  but  characteristic  of 
neither.  I  should  have  gone  back  to  one  or  another  of 
the  former  modes  of  spelling,  when  striking  into  man- 
hood for  myself,  had  not  the  American  '  Schoulers ' 
by  that  time  become  so  fairly  rooted  in  popular 
renown  that  filial  respect  forbade  new  experiments  in 
nomenclature." 

The  "  Scoulers  "  are  still  to  be  found  in  Scotland, 
and  in  the  region,  more  especially,  of  Glasgow, 
Paisley,  and  Ayr,  though  scattered  elsewhere  about 
the  lowlands  where  probably  they  are  indigenous. 
Slight  variations  of  this  spelling  may  be  traced,  such 
as  "Scoular"  or  "Scouller."  One  of  the  more  dis- 
tinguished of  this  family,  who  was  entertained  in 
Glasgow  at  a  public  dinner  about  half  a  century  ago, 
stated  in  a  speech  that  he  could  trace  the  Scoulere 
back  in  Scotland  for  two  hundred  years ;  but  the  race 
appears  to  have  been  modest  and  self-respecting  on 
the  whole,  rather  than  illustrious,  and  not  much 
given  to  boasting  of  pedigree.  Probably  the  Scotch 
"Scouler"or  "Scoler,"  like  the  German  "Schuler," 
has  the  same  root  as  the  English  "Scholar;"  and  it 
is  certainly  a  family  tradition  that  the  Scoulers,  what- 
ever may  have  been  their  educational  disadvantage, 
in  any  sense,  are  much  given  to  books  and  reading, 
—  a  trait  which  is  strikingly  exemplified  in  various 
instances  on  this  side  of  the  water.  Reading  and 
writing,  as  Dogberry  would  say,  seem  to  come  to 
them  by  instinct.     Indeed,  the  Scouler  coat-of-arms, 


172  BIOGRAPHY. 

which  some  Glasgow  merchants  of  the  family  dis- 
played fifty  years  ago,  exhibits  a  hand  holding  an 
open  book,  with  the  accompanying  motto  "Pro 
virtu te ;  "  a  crest  which  would  indicate  a  strong  pre- 
dilection for  the  arts  of  peace.  But  as  the  high-born 
Scottish  chiefs  of  old  were  always  given  to  war,  or  at 
least  to  brawling,  we  may  assume,  perhaps,  without 
diving  into  Scotch  genealogy,  that  the  Scoulers  are 
of  no  great  lineage  on  their  native  soil,  but  a  plebeian 
race  of  bread-winners,  supplying  to  the  world  the 
usual  plebeian  complement  of  plain  farmers,  artisans, 
and  merchants,  with  now  and  then  a  trained  profes- 
sional man  of  marked  ability  who  holds  his  head 
above  the  rest.  Marriage  alliances  of  the  Scoulers 
with  more  illustrious  families,  such  as  the  Macarthurs 
and  Macallisters  have  produced  some  Scotchmen  of 
distinction:  such,  for  instance,  as  the  Hon.  Arthur 
Macallister  of  recent  memory,  who  went  out  to 
Australia  and  was  twice  made  Premier  of  Queensland. 
He  was  a  near  connection  of  our  author's  father,  and 
born  about  the  same  year.  But  a  still  nearer  connec- 
tion and  a  closer  contemporary,  though  born  ten  years 
earlier,  was  his  first  cousin.  Professor  John  Scouler, 
who,  so  far  as  we  can  discover,  gave  to  the  Scotch 
patronymic  more  decided  lustre  than  any  one  else  in 
the  old  country  who  has  yet  borne  it.  He  had  a 
precocious  bent  to  botany  and  natural  history.  He 
received  the  best  of  liberal  training  in  Glasgow  and 
Paris  for  his  special  pursuit,  and  was  for  some  years 
Professor  of  Natural  History  in  the  Andersonian  Uni- 
versity of  Glasgow,  and  afterwards  Professor  of 
Mineralogy  of  the  Royal  Dublin  Society.  He  was 
President  at  one  time  of  the  Glasgow  Geological 
Society.  The  degrees  of  Doctor  of  Medicine  and 
Doctor  of  Laws  were  conferred  upon  him.     He  made 


BIOGRAPHY.  173 

important  scientific  discoveries  in  the  region  of  the 
Columbia  River  while  on  an  expedition  with  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company;  and  the  large  illustrated 
History  of  Glasgow  refers  to  him  repeatedly  on  local 
points  as  an  eminent  authority  in  archaeology.  His 
bust,  which  is  still  preserved  in  the  library  of  the 
Andersonian  University,  shows  a  strong  profile  resem- 
blance to  our  author's  father,  wdth  whom  in  later  life 
he  carried  on  an  interesting  correspondence  over 
the  family  history,  which  has  been  unfortunately 
destroyed.  ^ 

Professor  John  Scouler  was  buried  in  a  corner  of 
the  quiet  churchyard  of  Kilbarchan,  where  the  remains 
of  his  wife  (who  died  soon  after  marriage)  and  of  his 
parents  are  also  interred,  the  spot  being  marked  to 
this  day  by  a  plain  monument.  From  this  same 
Kilbarchan  went  forth  the  "  Schoulers "  (as  now 
entitled)  to  the  United  States.  It  is  a  small,  peace- 
ful village  of  about  twenty-six  hundred  souls,  acces- 
sible to  the  populous  manufacturing  town  of  Paisley 
in  the  same  county,  and  about  ten  miles  distant  from 
Glasgow.  An  omnibus  which  toils  along  an  up-hill 
road  conveys  passengers  thither  nowadays  from  the 
nearest  railroad  station.  Kilbarchan  has  at  present 
the  not  uncommon  aspect  in  the  Scotch  lowlands  of  a 
sturdy  village  which  has  seen  better  days  —  though 
never  very  good  ones  —  when  humble  hand-weaving 

1  The  letters  received  on  this  subject  hy  General  William  Schouler 
were  doubtless  contained  in  an  office  desk,  which  was  consumed  in 
the  great  Boston  fire  of  1872,  a  few  weeks  after  his  death.  Plis  son 
read  most  of  them  when  they  arrived  and  remembers  their  substance. 
Professor  Scouler  died  in  1871,  a  year  earlier  than  his  American 
kinsman  and  correspondent.  A  full  sketch  of  his  life  is  contained  in 
Glasgow  Geolog  Soc.  Transactions  (1873),  and  his  papers  on  the 
Columbia  River  expedition  are  to  be  found  in  the  Edinburgh  Journal 
of  Science  for  1826. 


174  BIOGRAPHY. 

flourished  and  the  printing  of  cloths  by  the  block 
method,  pursuits  both  favorable  to  village  industry 
before  the  large  towns  sucked  in  the  rural  population. 
Its  long  rows  of  little  stone  cottages  defy  the  ravages 
of  time;  while  its  two  kirks,  the  "Established 
Presbyterian"  and  "United  Presbyterian,"  symbolize 
that  freedom  of  discussion  which  divided  the  Scotch 
communities  long  years  ago  in  religious  creeds. 
Kilbarchan  has  its  inn,  the  "Black  Bull,"  kept  after 
a  country  home  fashion,  with  a  bar  served  by  women 
folk.  It  boasts,  too,  a  new  town-house  which  stands 
in  presumptuous  contrast  with  the  old  and  forsaken 
one,  and  rears  a  high  white  tower. 

In  this  little  village  during  the  last  and  culminat- 
ing years  of  England's  tremendous  struggle  with 
Napoleon  —  and  while,  too,  as  a  minor  enemy  the 
mother  country  was  fighting  in  a  second  unwelcome 
war  the  United  States  —  dwelt  two  Scouler  brothers, 
engaged  in  carrying  on  together  a  calico-printing 
factory  of  the  sort  then  common,  within  an  easy  team- 
ing distance  from  the  market  town  of  Paisley. 
William,  the  older  brother,  was  father  of  the  young 
naturalist  of  whom  we  have  spoken;  while  James, 
the  younger,  was  the  destined  emigrant  and  founder 
of  an  American  race.  William  owned  the  factory, 
being  a  man  of  large  means,  enhanced  by  his  pros- 
perous marriage  to  a  daughter  of  the  Glasgow 
Macarthurs,  a  noted  family.  James  held  a  respon- 
sible place  in  managing  the  business;  and  he,  too, 
had  happily  married  in  Glasgow,  his  wife  being 
Margaret  Clark,  a  woman  of  superior  endowments 
and  family,  1  whose  strong  character  bore  well  the 

1  Margaret  Clark  used  to  visit  an  aunt  at  Stirling,  who  lived  upon 
an  ancestral  estate  granted  by  King  Robert  Bruce  for  distinguished 


BIOGRAPHY.  175 

test  of  vicissitudes  in  store  for  her.  James's  dwell- 
ing-house in  Kilbarchan  was  a  spacious  and  comfort- 
able two-story  stone  house  which  he  probably  rented. 
It  was  near  the  village,  on  a  rising  slope,  with  hills 
seen  undulating  in  the  distance,  which  are  now 
studded  by  residences  of  the  Scotch  gentry,  and 
afford  fine  views  for  miles  about.  Here  w^ere  born 
in  succession  three  sons  and  a  daughter,  the  third 
son  being  William,  our  author's  father,  who  first  saw 
the  light  of  day  on  the  Slat  of  December,  1814. 
"Fore-house,"  as  this  family  mansion  is  styled  in 
modern  yeai-s,  still  stands  almost  unaltered  in  out- 
ward aspect  since  James  Scouler  lived  there,  except 
for  more  modern  plate-glass  windows.  A  high  stone 
wall  separates  it  from  the  road ;  and  entering  the  gates 
either  by  the  pretty  carriage-drive  or  on  the  long 
gravel  walk,  one  sees  among  fine  trees,  and  beyond 
a  rich  green  lawn,  naturally  sloping,  on  which  sheep 
browse  lazily,  a  solid  house  of  a  slate-colored  stone, 
with  substantial  steps  and  a  stone  portico,  honestly 
and  squarely  facing  the  road,  with  a  green  hedge 
just  in  front  of  it,  and  a  kitchen  garden  flanked  by  a 
high  wall  in  its  rear. 

The  circumstances  under  which  our  American 
progenitor  left  his  thriving  business  in  Scotland  and 
this  pleasant  and  attractive  abode,  to  expatriate  him- 
self and  settle  among  strangers  across  the  ocean,  were 
peculiar  and  highly  creditable  to  him.  It  was  in 
1816  that  the  change  in  question  occurred,  and  just 
at  a  period  of  wedded  life  when  one's  domestic  roots 
begin  to  strike  deepest;  for  James  Scouler,  born  in 
1786,  was  by  this  time  at  manhood's  full  stage,  and 
father  of  a  growing  family.  Political  reasons  were 
the  occasion,  as  a  Scotch  obituary  notice  hinted  at 
his  death;  but  during  his   life,    so  reticent  had  he 


176  BIOGRAPHY. 

been  on  the  subject  of  his  removal  to  America,  that 
this  hint  was  a  surprise  to  his  own  children.  "He 
told  me  the  whole  story,"  relates  our  present  author, 
"  about  the  time  I  graduated  from  college ;  and  had  I 
then  thought  how  closely  he  had  kept  his  secret,  I 
would  have  written  down  the  details  at  once.  As 
his  namesake  and  oldest  grandson,  and  a  liberally 
educated  youth  besides,  he  perhaps  meant  to  show 
me  an  especial  confidence.  It  appears  that  the 
Scotch  brothers,  William  and  James,  differed  strongly 
in  politics,  William  being  a  Tory  conservative,  while 
James  was  a  liberal  and  attended  liberal  clubs.  In 
1815  or  thereabouts  some  plot  against  the  government 
was  in  progress  (and  as  my  impression  is,  a  liberal 
one)  which  had  its  ramifications  in  my  grandfather's 
vicinity.  He  found  himself  one  night  in  a  store  with 
others.  The  shutters  were  closed,  and  treasonable 
plans  promulgated.  Grandfather  listened  to  all  he 
could  bear,  and  then  put  on  his  hat  and  left  the 
meeting.  '  I  cannot, '  said  he  plainly  to  the  others, 
'  raise  my  hand  against  my  King  and  country !  ' 
Whatever  the  plot  it  failed  ignominiously,  and  the 
officers  of  the  law  were  soon  in  pursuit  of  the  parties 
implicated,  desiring  to  capture  grandfather  as  a 
government  witness.  Hearing  of  this  he  fled,  unwil- 
ling, as  he  strongly  expressed  himself  to  me,  to  help 
put  a  halter  on  the  neck  of  any  personal  friends ;  and 
facilitated  by  those  who  dreaded  his  testimony,  he 
kept  in  hiding  for  a  week  and  was  then  smuggled  out 
of  Scotland  in  a  small  sailing-vessel  bound  for  the 
United  States.  His  wife,  who  knew  neither  wdiy  nor 
whither  he  had  gone,  bore  her  first  daughter  not  long 
after  his  departure.  More  precise  details  of  my 
grandfather's  story  may  have  escaped  my  memory; 
but  the  main  facts  evincing  his  own  attitude  to  the 


BIOGRAPHY.  Ill 

political  plot  in  question,  whatever  that  plot  might 
have  been,  are  just  as  he  related  them  in  his  own 
vivid  and  impressive  manner,  and  with  the  aspect  of 
perfect  honesty.  '  When  I  first  came  to  the  United 
States,'  he  added,  '  I  only  expected  to  stay  a  few 
months  until  the  trouble  blew  over.  I  had  no  idea 
that  I  should  make  this  country  my  permanent 
home.'" 

II. 

The  emigrant  and  grandfather,  James  Schouler, 
—  to  whose  surname  we  may  henceforth  give  his  final 
American  spelling,  —  landed  in  New  York  City  when 
about  thirty  years  old,  an  utter  stranger,  without 
letters  and  with  little  money.  This  was  at  the  time 
when  our  people,  jubilant  over  an  honorable  peace 
with  Great  Britain,  had  just  begun  to  repair  the 
ravages  of  war.  Business  shook  off  its  long  stagna- 
tion and  sought  new  enterprises.  Like  most  emi- 
grants who  keep  their  self-respect,  our  present  one 
looked  first  of  all  for  honest  work;  but  the  solitary 
search  did  not  bring  quick  results.  Being,  however, 
a  good  musician,  he  would  go  down  to  North  River 
in  the  evening  and  play  for  solace  upon  his  flute; 
and  while  thus  occupied,  he  attracted  the  notice  of  a 
benevolent  citizen,  who  opened  conversation  with 
him,  and  on  learning  his  wishes  procured  for  him  a 
first  situation. 

The  employment,  we  may  imagine,  was  humble 
enough ;  but  James  entered  upon  his  work  with  such 
a  will  that  before  the  lapse  of  many  months  he  had 
concluded  himself  capable  of  making  a  living  in  this 
new  world,  and  sent  for  his  Avife  and  children  to  join 
him.     Of   their  voyage   in   1816  (or  possibly  1817) 

12 


178  BIOGRAPHY. 

more  is  known  in  the  family  than  of  his  own.  They 
left  Scotland  in  a  ship  which  occupied  seven  weeks 
in  crossing  the  Atlantic;  and  a  young  physician  on 
board,  their  fellow-passenger,  showed  great  kindness 
to  the  mother  by  entertaining  her  two  older  boys, 
John  and  Robert,  while  she  was  nursing  little  William 
(or  "Wallie,"  as  she  always  called  him)  and  her 
infant  daughter  Jane.  Reunited  in  this  land  of  adop- 
tion, the  family  followed  loyally  the  husband  and 
father,  in  such  wanderings  for  the  next  fifteen  years 
as  his  trade  might  require,  and  from  one  new  home 
to  another.  In  Brooklyn  little  Jane  died.  But  the 
three  sons  who  had  crossed  the  Atlantic  survived  to 
ripe  manhood.  Two  more  daughters  and  another  son 
were  born  to  the  same  parents  in  the  United  States ; 
and  each  son  and  daughter  marrying  in  due  course 
and  rearing  a  family  of  American  grandchildren,  our 
Scotch  progenitor  made  good  his  transfer  of  faith  and 
allegiance  to  the  United  States. 

James  Schouler,  the  grandfather,  was  a  man  of 
industry  and  perseverance  and  of  perfect  sobriety, 
and  he  kept  a  steady  regard  for  his  opportunities  in 
life,  cheered  constantly,  as  he  was  through  the  whole 
straitened  period,  by  his  admirable  helpmate,  who 
bore  all  hardships  with  courage  and  good  humor. 
Learning  presently  that  calico  print-works  were  to  be 
set  up  at  Staten  Island,  he  offered  himself  for  employ- 
ment; and  the  proprietor,  quickly  perceiving  him  to 
be  no  common  workman,  but  one  who  understood  the 
business  and  had  conducted  it  abroad,  gave  him  at 
once  a  good  position  and  salary.  Here  Schouler 
would  have  been  contented  to  remain;  but  he  found 
the  climate  of  the  neighborhood  unhealthy,  and  chills 
and  fever  were  the  consequence.  Warned  already  by 
death  in  the  family,  he  resolved  to  leave ;  and  the  pro- 


BIOGRAPHY.  179 

prietor,  unwilling  to  lose  him,  then  offered  a  partner- 
ship. "I  would  not  take  your  whole  factory,"  was 
his  reply,  "at  the  cost  of  my  wife  and  children;" 
and  he  removed  from  New  York  State  to  Massachu- 
setts. Here  employed  for  a  few  years  longer  on  a 
salary,  in  mills  at  Taunton  and  Lynn,  he  prepared  to 
set  up  cloth  print-works  of  his  own  and  become  him- 
self an  employer.  He  bought  for  $2,100  in  March, 
1832,  a  mill  site  which  pleased  him,  in  the  town  of 
West  Cambridge,  with  a  water  privilege  from  an 
upper  pond,  and  a  factory  and  dwelling-house  already 
built;  mortgaging  the  premises  to  secure  about  half 
the  purchase-money.  Here  settling  with  his  family 
at  an  opportune  time,  he  soon  began  to  make  money 
and  established  a  handsome  business.  The  county 
land  records,  which  preserve  his  first  purchase  as  made 
by  "James  Schooler  of  Lynn,  calico  printer,"  show  in 
the  course  of  the  next  twenty  years  many  more  real- 
estate  transactions  which  indicate  that  this  new  free- 
holder of  the  town  grew  rapidly  in  wealth  and 
extended  his  thriving  business.  The  site  of  these 
picturesque  red  factories,  multiplied  by  his  energy, 
down  in  the  hollow  through  which  ran  the  mill 
stream,  can  be  still  identified  in  Arlington,  while  his 
mansion  on  the  upland,  with  porches  and  a  pillared 
piazza,  which  stood  at  the  right-hand  side  of  the  high- 
road to  Lexington,  guarding  the  factory  and  its  lane 
like  a  sentry  of  the  Revolution,  is  yet  visible ;  but 
the  factories  themselves  were  destroyed  by  accidental 
fire  some  years  ago  and  the  rubbish  cleared  away. 
While  directing  the  new  business  which  he  had 
brought  to  West  Cambridge,  he  equipped  his  mills 
throughout  with  cloth-printing  machinery,  and  a 
water-wheel  supplied  the  motive  power. 

But  the  immigrant  Schouler  brought  with  him  one 


180  BIOGRAPHY. 

Scotch  trait  with  which  our  American  over-ambition 
stands  in  sharp  contrast;  and  this  was  to  achieve  a 
safe  competence  and  then  retire  contentedly  and  enjoy 
through  old  age  the  well-earned  fruits  of  personal 
industry.  This  period  he  fixed  soon  after  reaching 
fifty;  and  to  his  sons,  by  that  time  grown  up,  he 
turned  over  his  flourishing  business  and  sought 
recreation  and  a  change  of  scene.  About  the  year 
1838  he  revisited  Scotland  and  his  foreign  relatives, 
bringing  back  with  him  among  other  curiosities  wax 
impressions  of  the  Scotch  family  crest  to  which  we 
have  referred,  and  profiting  possibly  by  that  renewal 
of  family  acquaintance,  as  well  as  his  pecuniary  inde- 
pendence, to  conform  the  spelling  of  his  American 
surname  more  closely  to  the  Scotch  standard.  Unwil- 
ling upon  his  return  to  remain  entirely  idle,  he 
bought  another  mill  site  and  mansion  at  tranquil 
Burlington,  a  few  miles  beyond  Lexington,  making 
this  his  place  of  residence  while  he  dallied  with  his 
former  pursuit  just  enough  to  make  idleness  less  irk- 
some, and  then  he  moved  back  to  West  Cambridge. 
Here  his  wife,  the  long  partner  of  his  joys  and  tribu- 
lations, died  July  24,  1851,  at  the  age  of  sixty- three ; 
and  life  among  the  familiar  surroundings  then  grew 
to  him  so  intolerable  that  he  soon  returned  to  New 
York  State,  and  for  the  remnant  of  his  long  life 
resided  in  the  little  town  of  Westchester,  not  far 
from  the  great  metropolis  and  the  scenes  which  had 
witnessed  his  first  struggle  for  a  livelihood  in  this 
new  world.  He  retained  still  the  legal  title  to  the 
factory  premises  at  West  Cambridge,  selling  out  his 
Burlington  property;  and  he  would  come  occasionally 
to  Massachusetts  to  visit  his  sons  and  daughters, 
whose  homes,  like  their  interests  in  life,  had  begun 
to  diverge. 


BIOGRAPHY.  181 

Our  present  author  records  a  fii*st  and  only  visit 
which  he  paid  to  his  grandfather  in  this  Westchester 
home.  "It  was  in  April,  1860,"  he  writes,  "and 
nearly  a  year  after  I  had  graduated  from  college,  that 
I  left  New  York  by  the  trim  paddle-steamboat  with  a 
sentimental  name,  the  '  Sylvan  Shore, '  and  at  the 
Harlem  landing-place  in  early  afternoon  entered  a 
lumbering  stage  Avhich  took  me  on  to  West  Farms. 
Thence  I  proceeded  on  foot  to  Westchester,  not  very- 
far  distant,  and  by  inquiring  the  way  soon  found  the 
house.  Its  situation  was  pretty,  and  the  mansion  a 
snug  one  for  a  quiet  old  couple.  Domestic  com- 
panionship, I  may  here  remark,  had  proved  so  essen- 
tial to  grandfather's  comfort  in  life  that  he  had  by 
this  time  married  again  and  brought  into  his  house- 
hold a  good  woman,  of  congenial  Scotch  connections 
and  about  his  own  age,  whose  anxious  solicitude  for 
her  worshipful  spouse  was  constantly  visible.  Both 
received  me  very  kindly,  and  I  made  over  night  a 
charming  visit.  The  grave  simplicity  and  force  of 
grandfather's  conversation  was  never  so  felt  by  me  as 
on  this  evening,  when  we  sat  together  and  he  appeared 
in  his  best  mood.  A  man  of  habitual  reticence,  who 
never  wasted  words  on  any  one,  he  felt  perhaps  a 
special  disposition  at  this  time  to  express  himself.  I 
was  a  favorite  grandson,  and  he  cherished  some 
appreciation  perhaps  of  the  peculiar  dignity  attaching 
to  my  college  diploma.  Our  discoui^se  turned  much 
upon  life,  —  I  looking  forward  to  it  and  he  looking 
back;  and,  having  an  excellent  memory,  he  recited 
in  a  manner  that  much  impressed  me,  with  his  Scotch 
accent  and  melodious  voice,  a  part  of  that  essay  by 
Goldsmith  which  begins,  '  Old  age  that  lessens  the 
enjoyment  of  life  increases  the  desire  of  living.* 
Another  passage  which,  in  connection  with  American 


182  BIOGRAPHY, 

politics,  he  quoted  at  length  from  Scott's  '  Quentin 
Durward, '  so  sank  into  my  thoughts  that  I  looked  it 
up  afterwards  and  found  it  in  the  sixteenth  chapter. 
It  is  where  the  hero  of  the  novel  carries  on  an  argu- 
mentative dialogue  with  the  vagrant  who  has  no 
home,  no  country,  no  religion;  but  who  claims,  as 
sufficiently  remaining  for  his  recompense,  '•  I  have 
liberty.'  In  the  course  of  the  evening  I  played  at 
his  request  upon  the  piano;  and  presently  when  I 
struck  into  an  andcmte  from  one  of  Mozart's  sonatas 
which  he  liked,  he  brought  his  flute  and  played  the 
air  as  he  stood  by  me." 

So  far  as  the  world  took  notice  of  him,  Schouler 
was  a  plain  business  man;  and  the  three  business 
traits  which  marked  him  and  contributed  most  to  his 
success  were  good  judgment,  perseverance,  and  thor- 
ough honesty.  There  was  a  genuineness  about  him, 
an  unassuming  self-respect,  which  inspired  confidence ; 
so  that  where  he  needed  money  for  his  projects  he 
raised  it  readily  and  repaid  with  punctuality.  He 
was  high-principled,  true  as  steel,  faithful  to  what- 
ever interests  might  have  been  committed  to  liim. 
But  he  was  not  like  our  American  men  of  business, 
who  make  great  haste  and  try  to  achieve  the  colossal. 
He  had  no  wide  range  of  ambition;  but  a  "wee 
house, "  a  "  wee  fortune, ''  contented  him.  He  minded 
his  own  afPairs,  and  was  willing  that  others  should  do 
likewise.  We  have  already  noted  his  disposition  to 
leave  money-making  when  he  had  made  enough  to 
retire  upon ;  the  devotion  of  his  last  long  years  to  a 
rustic  domestic  ease,  to  tranquil  independence  and 
tranquil  self-improvement.  His  just  sense  of  right 
put  bounds  to  toil,  and  gave  to  individual  success  its 
due  reward.     He  deemed  it  enough  for  his  sons  that 


BIOGRAPHY.  183 

he  handed  over  to  them  the  business  that  he  had 
so  well  established,  at  a  time  when  they  all  might 
make  together  a  living  from  it.  He  did  not  choose, 
for  his  own  part,  to  slave  all  his  life  for  posterity, 
nor  to  leave  an  ambitious  fortune  for  idlers  to  dissi- 
pate. He  remained  Scotch,  too,  in  eschewing  all 
tricks  for  increasing  his  own  estate  by  overreaching 
others.  For  that  American  "booming,"  as  we  call  it 
in  later  years,  he  had  no  turn ;  nor  for  over-praising 
the  qualities  of  a  thing  and  concealing  its  faults,  so 
as  to  drive  a  sharp  bargain.  At  one  time  after  he 
had  given  up  the  mills,  he  was  induced  to  go  into  a 
Boston  partnership  in  wholesale  dry  goods,  as  his 
eldest  son  did  later.  But  he  soon  took  his  capital 
out  of  the  concern,  disgusted  with  the  prevalent 
trade  methods.  "I  couldn't  lie  and  I  couldn't 
steal,"  he  would  say  afterwards,  "and  so  I  left  the 
business." 

Whether  in  household  or  social  relations,  grand- 
father Schouler  was  the  same  sober  individual, 
sensible,  self-respecting,  and  tenacious  of  his  own 
opinions.  He  kept  up  through  life  his  fondness  for 
the  simple  customs  and  the  simple  people  of  his  native 
land ,  and  he  employed  in  his  factories  many  who  had 
come  over  from  the  lowlands  lil^e  liimself,  maintain- 
ing his  authority  all  the  while  by  a  certain  reserve  of 
manner,  at  the  same  time  that  his  quiet,  unobtrusive 
interest  was  kindness  itself.  The  great  minds  of 
Scotland  were  his  constant  admiration.  Burns  and 
Walter  Scott  he  read  through  and  tlirough ;  and  his 
ideal  of  worldly  happiness  seemed  comprehended,  as 
so  many  Scotch  songs  have  expressed  it,  within  the 
"ingleside  "  and  its  domestic  accompaniments.  And 
yet,  though  by  no  means  unsocial  with  callers  or  his 
own   family,   he  was  rather  taciturn  and  seldom  if 


184  BIOGRAPHY. 

ever  jocular  of  speech  and  familiar.  Except  when 
stirred  to  elevated  expression,  he  was  simple  and 
judicious,  listening  readily  to  others,  giving  his 
opinion  in  a  few  fitting  words,  if  asked  for  it,  but  not 
given  to  trifling  discourse,  slang,  or  gossip.  But  it 
was  easy  to  see  that  he  appreciated  more  than  he 
expressed  i  and  to  his  grandchildren,  at  least,  who 
stood  somewhat  in  awe  of  him,  he  would  show  hy 
some  little  attention  that  he  was  not  unthoughtful  of 
their  happiness.  They  never  saw  him  in  a  passion 
nor  thrown  off  his  balance  of  equanimity  on  one  side 
or  the  other;  but  when  highly  pleased  his  grave 
features  relaxed  into  a  smile,  and  when  something 
went  wrong  he  would  vent  his  displeasure  by  a  severe 
and  caustic  remark,  whose  effect  was  heightened  by 
a  tight  compression  of  his  thin  lips  and  a  peculiar 
clucking  of  the  tongue  within.  His  whole  aspect 
was  that  of  the  master  and  disciplinarian,  though  a 
just  one  certainly,  and  after  his  own  silent  fashion  a 
kind  one. 

All  this  was  much  in  contrast  with  his  wife,  the 
mother  of  his  children.  She  was  a  woman  of  decided 
strength  of  character  and  an  admirable  complement  of 
such  a  husband,  to  temper  his  justice  with  mercy  and 
loving-kindness  and  make  him  respected  by  the  world 
to  the  utmost.  Though  not  educated  beyond  Scotch 
women  of  her  day,  nor  possessed  of  any  marked 
accomplishment,  she  was  an  admirable  housekeeper 
and  manager  of  a  family.  She  had  strong  native 
talent,  was  merry  and  bright  under  all  vicissitudes  of 
life,  entertained  admirably  with  her  conversation, 
which  turned  much  upon  her  varied  personal  acquaint- 
ance and  experience,  and  had  a  great  faculty  for 
drawing  out  and  making  friends  of  whomsoever  she 
might  encounter.     She  was  full  of  good-humor,  and 


BIOGRAPHY.  185 

could  make  others  listen  to  her  and  laugh  by  the 
hour.  Her  sons  have  been  heard  to  express  the  love 
and  gratitude  which  they  felt  for  her  beyond  all 
others.  While  she  lived  she  held  up  the  children  to 
their  best  and  kept  the  family  united,  and  after  she 
died  the  strong  bond  of  union  was  forever  gone  and 
missing.  Such  of  her  grandchildren  as  lived  early 
enough  to  know  her,  welcomed  her  family  visits, 
which  were  apt  to  be  sudden  ones ;  for  with  her  jovial 
greeting  she  always  brought  them  some  present  or 
another.  And  her  generosity  and  good  deeds  among 
her  neighbors,  which  fortunately  her  husband's  means 
after  a  time  enabled  her  to  bestow  liberally,  so 
endeared  her  to  the  people  of  West  Cambridge  that 
it  seemed  as  if  the  whole  town,  rich  and  poor,  poured 
out  to  attend  her  funeral. 

The  early  home  life  of  the  Schoulers  in  this  town 
of  West  Cambridge  is  described  by  the  surviving 
daughters.  They  and  their  friends  would  gather 
round  the  mother  in  a  room  upstairs  and  frolic  to 
their  hearts'  content,  while  the  father  passed  his 
evening  by  himself,  reading  or  playing  on  the  flute ; 
but  whenever  they  wanted  him  to  play  for  a  dance 
he  was  ready  to  gratify  them.  His  love  of  music 
and  his  skilful  playing  were  remarkable  for  an 
amateur  not  much  instructed ;  and  his  soul  was  full 
of  Scotch  ditties  grave  and  gay,  of  marches,  reels, 
and  mournful  minor  dirges,  in  great  variety,  which 
he  had  constantly  at  command  to  pour  out  through 
the  hollow  of  his  silver-keyed  instrument  with  the 
aid  of  his  nimble  fingers.  His  oldest  granddaughter 
grew  to  be  a  great  favorite  with  him,  because  she 
not  only  had  a  responsive  heart,  but  loved  the  music 
that  he  loved  and  could  play  it  for  him  upon  the 
piano. 


186  BIOGRAPHY. 

Grandfather  and  grandmother  Schouler  were  a 
pleasing  pair,  and  in  aspect  and  accent  of  speech 
bespoke  their  Scottish  origin.  She  had  a  dark  and 
sympathetic  eye,  strongly  marked  features,  more 
furrowed  through  hard  experience  than  her  hus- 
band's, and  a  face  which  beamed  kindly  out  from  one 
of  those  old-fashioned  ruflied  caps  which  seemed 
inseparable  from  her.  He  was  a  man  of  medium 
height,  perhaps  five  feet  eight,  compactly  built,  and 
looking  like  one  who  would  hold  his  own  with  any 
man  and  ask  no  more.  His  hair  was  plentiful,  inclin- 
ing to  gray  ringlets.  His  features  had  the  Schouler 
cast,  observable  since  in  others  of  the  family,  with 
the  outline  of  a  handsome  forehead,  nose,  and  chin. 
His  mouth  was  firm-set  and  secretive;  his  eye  a 
penetrating  blue ;  and  his  whole  expression,  of  which 
a  razored  face  left  no  concealment,  was  that  of  a  self- 
contained  man,  who  had  been  schooled  into  sternness 
and  almost  severity  by  the  stress  of  circumstances. 
Yet  though  Scotch  of  aspect,  and  of  sound  moral 
principle,  there  was  no  tinge  of  rigid  Scotch  intoler- 
ance about  either  of  the  pair.  They  seemed,  indeed, 
to  fit  into  their  later  surroundings  better  than  their 
earlier  ones.  The  husband  was  Republican  in  senti- 
ment, a  believer  in  equal  rights,  and  as  soon  as  our 
Civil  War  broke  out  he  called  in  some  money  he  had 
out  on  mortgage  and  invested  it  in  United  States 
bonds.  Yet  he  would  sometimes  speak  with  con- 
tempt of  the  men  who  managed  the  politics  in  his 
New  York  vicinity,  as  scorning  to  have  them  for  his 
masters.  He  was  of  irreproachable  habits;  always 
temperate  in  drink,  though  not  a  teetotaler ;  a  snuff- 
taker,  but  not  otherwise  much  addicted  to  tobacco; 
moderate  in  all  things  and  under  strong  self-control. 
In  religious  belief  he  affiliated  chiefly  with  the  Uni- 


BIOGRAPHY.  187 

versalists ;  and  of  the  whole  family  that  he  brought 
up  not  one  strayed  back  to  the  old  Presbyterian  faith 
of  Kilbarchan. 

Our  exemplary  emigrant  died  at  Westchester, 
February  24,  1864,  at  the  age  of  seventy-seven.  His 
remains  were  brought  on  to  (West  Cambridge) 
Arlington  to  be  laid  in  tenderness  by  those  of  the 
wife  who  had  been  the  friend  of  his  active  years. 
The  life  we  have  described  was  not  historically  con- 
spicuous nor  ever  dreamed  to  become  so.  It  is  paral- 
leled in  America  by  doubtless  many  others;  but  of 
such  hidden  fountains  come  the  springs  that  nourish 
this  land  of  opportunities  into  greatness.  This 
Scotch  founder  of  a  new  family  in  the  new  world  had 
accomplished  something.  Landing  in  our  chief  sea- 
port friendless  and  penniless,  he  had  begun  a  new 
prime,  leaving  the  earlier  one  of  equal  promise  behind 
him.  He  had  in  a  quarter  of  a  century  achieved  here 
a  competence,  to  enjoy  it  for  another  quarter  of  a 
centurj^  A  troop  of  bright  and  promising  grand- 
children gathered  at  his  funeral.  His  two  daughters, 
both  American  born,  had  married  merchants  of  local 
wealth  and  eminence.  His  eldest  son,  at  whose 
house  the  last  ceremonies  took  place,  had  grown  up 
with  the  town,  and  as  one  of  its  foremost  citizens  in 
all  enterprises  had  received  its  highest  honors  as 
selectman  and  in  both  branches  of  the  Legislature. 
His  third  son,  also  present  at  the  funeral,  was  now  a 
Massachusetts  military  officer,  second  only  to  the 
Governor  himself  in  sending  Massachusetts  regi- 
ments to  the  front  and  guarding  well  their  interests. 
In  the  quiet  Arlington  cemetery  on  the  Medford 
road,  from  whose  hill  one  might  look  towards  the 
crowning  scenes  of  his  life's  labor,   James  Schouler 


188  BIOGRAPHY. 

was  committed  to  his  last  mortal  resting-place.  Two 
marble  slabs  side  by  side  commemorate  husband  and 
wife;  and  on  the  headstone  of  the  former  is  an  in- 
scription suggested  probably  by  himself  as  an  emblem 
of  his  simple  creed,  "God  our  Father,  Christ  our 
Saviour." 

III. 

1839-1846. 

We  have  seen  that  William  (afterwards  Adjutant- 
General  of  Massachusetts),  the  father  of  our  present 
author,  and  the  third  son  of  James  and  Margaret 
Clark  Schouler  (or  Scouler),  was  born  in  Kilbarchan, 
Scotland,  on  the  last  day  of  1814,  and  in  early  infancy 
was  brought  over  to  America  by  his  mother,  with 
three  other  children. ^  Except  for  these  immediate 
parental  influences,  his  youthful  memories  and  asso- 
ciations were  American  from  the  cradle,  as  was  also 
his  education ;  but  through  life  he  cherished  a  romantic 
fondness  for  his  native  land,  its  statesmen,  its  war- 
riors, and  its  literature,  and  hailed  as  doubly  brethren 
all  who  bore  their  credentials  of  origin  from  the  same 
rugged  soil.  Once  and  only  once,  in  early  manhood, 
he  found  opportunity  to  revisit  old  Scotia,  and  it  was 
the  unfulfilled  dream  of  his  later  life  to  revisit  it 
again. 

Of  William  Schouler's  experience  in  childhood 
very  little  is  preserved,  nor  was  the  subject  ever 
much  alluded  to  in  his  own  family.  But  we  know 
that  with  his  older  brothers  he  followed  his  father's 
wanderings  to  Staten  Island,  Taunton,  and  Lynn  for 
manual  employment,  pursuing,    when  at  work,    the 

1  See  pages  175,  178. 


BIOGRAPHY.  189 

same  trade.  He  acquired  as  he  might,  at  one  place 
or  another,  the  elements  of  a  good  common-school 
education;  and  of  his  mother's  helpful  sympathy  and 
encouragement  all  these  years  he  has  spoken  to  his 
own  children  with  the  utmost  tenderness,  as  though 
no  praise  could  be  too  great  for  her.  In  one  racy 
and  familiar  speech  which  he  made  in  the  Massachu- 
setts Convention  of  1853,  as  its  reported  Debates 
show,  —  a  speech  whose  special  purpose  was  to  put 
the  assembled  body  in  good  humor  at  a  time  when 
irritations  were  becoming  very  great,  —  he  alluded 
with  more  freedom  to  his  early  life  than  was  usual  to 
him.  And  thus  we  find  that  he  had  worked  while 
young  in  the  mills  "and  pretty  long  hours,  too; "  that 
both  he  and  his  father  had  inclined  politically  to 
Whig  rather  than  Jackson  traditions ;  and  that  tak- 
ing earnestly  to  political  controversies  when  very 
young,  he  had  been  brought  up  and  almost  rocked  in 
them,  as  he  expressed  it.  We  see,  too,  that  his  bent 
had  been  pronounced  from  childhood  for  books  and 
self-improvement.  "I  have  read,"  he  says,  "a  little. 
I  have  read  some  authors  in  English  politics.  I  have 
read  some  Grecian  and  Roman  authors.  It  was  the 
study  of  my  youth,  after  mill  hours  were  over,  to 
read  these  books. "  ^  And  thus  had  William  Schouler, 
though  to  a  considerable  extent  a  self-made  man,  laid 
very  broadly  the  foundations  of  public  statesmanship 
by  the  time  he  was  capable  of  voting,  and  gained  a 
considerable  mastery  of  the  English  language  for 
fluent  writing  and  speaking. 

William  Schouler  was  in  his  eighteenth  year  when 
his  father  bought  the  West  Cambridge  factory  and 
became  a  mill-owner  for  himself;  and  from  that  time 
forward   the  son's  work  in  the  mills  was  of  course 

i  See  Debates,  ^Nlass.  Convention,  1853,  639,  640. 


190  BIOGRAPHY. 

confined  to  a  family  establishment,  of  which  he  was 
presently  to  become  a  joint  proprietor.  He  married 
October  6,  1835,  in  anticipation  of  pecuniary  inde- 
pendence, about  three  months  before  attaining  his 
majority ;  and  his  father,  generous  for  him  as  for  the 
other  sons,  gave  a  lot  of  land  and  built  him  a  house 
as  a  wedding  gift.  It  was  the  only  home  during  his 
whole  life  which  this  son  really  owned.  While  still 
a  resident  of  West  Cambridge  he  bought  an  eligible 
building  lot  in  another  part  of  the  to^vn,  and  then 
removing  from  the  town  he  sold  out  at  once  and  for- 
ever all  his  real  estate  in  the  world.  Frances  Eliza 
Warren,  born  in  West  Cambridge,  January  10,  1816, 
was  thirteen  months  younger  than  her  husband. 
Their  match  was  a  love  match  and  their  marriage  a 
true  companionship  of  hearts,  scarcely  in  death  to 
be  divided.  Frances  was  of  a  superior  Middlesex 
County  stock,  identified  with  the  English  coloniza- 
tion of  Massachusetts  in  1630,  and  with  the  prowess 
of  famous  Lexington  and  Concord  minute-men  in  the 
early  Revolution,  and  connected  not  remotely  with 
the  noblest  blood  spilt  at  Bunker's  Hill.  Rev.  Dr. 
Henry  Cumings,  for  many  years  the  parish  pastor 
and  leading  citizen  of  Billerica,  was  her  great-grand- 
father, dying  in  1823.  ^  But  simple  and  country 
bred,  all  this  seemed  of  little  consequence  to  her  or 
her  future  station  in  life.  She  had  been  brought  up 
as  the  ward  of  a  leading  citizen  of  West  Cambridge, 
Colonel  Thomas  Russell,  and  while  yet  a  girl  she 
became  engaged  to  the  man  of  her  choice  in  one  of 
an  emigrant  race,  new  to  the  town,  and  newly  pros- 
perous.    Fortune  was  no  gift  on  either  side,  but  high 

1  See  the  "  Genealogy  of  William  Wilkins  Warren,"  prepared  and 
published  for  family'  information  by  her  only  brother ;  and  see  also 
the  well-known  printed  volume  relating  to  the  "  Warren  family." 


BIOGRAPHY,  191 

aims,  sound  health,  sound  morals,  and  sound  char- 
acter. Frances  was  bright,  lovely  in  person  and  dis- 
position, accomplished  for  the  times  and  locality,  an 
admirable  housekeeper.  Her  lover  appeared  by  con- 
trast tall,  ungainly,  homely,  rather  unconventional; 
but  they  grew  into  a  handsome  couple,  he  developing 
quickly  the  masculine  graces,  and  no  two  natures 
ever  proved  more  congenial.  She  became  the  con- 
scientious and  devoted  mother  of  his  children,  and 
no  mother  ever  gained  or  deserved  more  devotion 
from  children  in  return^  Patterning  herself  after 
the  Christian  example,  meek,  domestic,  and  quiet  in 
her  tastes,  self-sacrificing  and  caring  little  to  shine, 
she  moulded  others  for  conspicuousness  by  the  force 
of  her  gentle  yet  pervading  will  in  the  home  circle. 

The  wooden  house  which  William  Schouler  had 
built  for  him  and  occupied  is  still  to  be  seen  on 
the  Main  Street  of  Arlington,  midw^ay  between 
the  railroad  station  and  the  former  site  of  the  fac- 
tories, though  on  the  opposite  side.  It  is  a  plain 
two-story  mansion  painted  white,  and  still  well- 
preserved;  the  hills  are  still  seen  rising  in  its  rear, 
but  the  handsome  trees  which  once  shaded  it  in  front 
have  disappeared.  Situated  close  to  the  sidewalk  at 
a  sharp  turn  of  the  road  to  Lexington,  it  seems  to  an 
approaching  traveller  journeying  in  that  direction  to 
stand  across  the  highway  on  the  left,  as  though  to 
obstruct  his  passage ;  but  the  optical  effect  diminishes 
as  he  draws  nearer.  To  this  house,  then  newly  built, 
the  young  manufacturer  brought  his  younger  bride ; 
and  within  its  walls  were  born  to  them  in  succession 
their  three  oldest  children,  Harriet,  James,  and 
William.  James,  the  future  historian,  was  born 
Marcl\^2Q^I.83j,  as  already  stated ;  the  other  two  in 
the  years  1837  and  1841  respectively. 


192  BIOGRAPHY. 

As  a  resident  of  West  Cambridge,  William  Schouler 
still  followed  with  his  brothers  the  paternal  calling 
until  about  twenty-seven  years  of  age.  But  he  had 
a  soul  above  cloth-printing,  and  as  a  public-spirited, 
energetic,  and  popular  man  he  inclined  to  solid  litera- 
ture and  politics.  He  was  in  much  local  demand  for 
occasional  addresses.  Loathing  always  the  Jefferson 
and  Jackson  school  of  national  statesmen,  and  enthu- 
siastic for  Clay,  Webster,  and  Harrison,  he  joined 
heartily  in  promoting  the  good  Whig  cause  through 
Middlesex  County.  He  would  write  leaders  for  a 
little  Whig  newspaper  in  Concord  which  William  S. 
Robinson,  a  young  journalist  of  rising  fame,  then 
conducted ;  and  in  the  great  campaign  of  1840,  which 
carried  "Old  Tippecanoe"  into  the  Presidency,  he 
took  an  active  part  in  the  local  speech-making  and 
enthusiasm,  recognized  at  once  as  a  ready  and  effec- 
tive speaker  among  rural  audiences. 

With  this  happy  initiation  into  Bay  State  politics 
under  the  auspices  of  a  new  party,  unlucky  enough 
in  its  national  triumphs,  but  immensely  strong  in  the 
affection  of  Massachusetts  while  it  lasted,  William 
Schouler  forsook  West  Cambridge  and  the  red  factory 
industry  for  the  more  congenial  calling  of  journalism. 
He  now  bought  the  "Lowell  Courier,"  and  moved 
to  the  thriving  city  of  spindles  in  1842  to  edit  and 
publish  it.  With  the  help  of  young  Robinson,  who 
had  printed  his  earlier  effusions  and  now  needed 
friendship,  he  made  of  it  quite  a  famous  Middlesex 
Whig  paper.  "Indeed,"  comments  a  veteran  editor, 
"  for  those  years  from  1842  to  1846  we  think  it  was 
the  best  piece  of  journalism  in  Massachusetts."  Mid- 
dlesex County  had  been  much  demoralized  by  earlier 
political  coalitions,  and  this  Lowell  paper  now  did 
much   to  bring  honest   voters   round  to   the    Whig 


BIOGRAPHY.  193 

cause.  Though  supporting  in  his  paper  Whig  pro- 
tective principles,  such  as  mightily  pleased  the  great 
mill  capitalists  of  this  enterprising  young  city, 
Schouler  regarded  well  the  interests  of  the  operative 
class  among  whom  he  had  been  brought  up;  and 
abominating  all  demagogues  and  stirrers  of  envy 
among  the  wage-earners,  he  gained  great  popularity 
by  his  honesty,  tact,  and  generous  dealing  towards 
employers  and  the  employed.  Wliile  a  resident  of 
Lowell  he  was  elected  four  times  to  the  Massachusetts 
House  of  Representatives,  extending  his  fame  and 
personal  acquaintance  to  the  great  civic  centre  of 
New  England  influence.  Taking  an  active  interest, 
moreover,  in  the  militia  in  these  early  years,  he  was 
chosen  Colonel  of  a  Middlesex  County  regiment,  and 
became  known  by  one  military  title  or  another  for 
the  rest  of  his  life.  Two  other  sons  of  Massachusetts, 
who  rose  to  greater  national  renown,  may  be  men- 
tioned as  his  junior  field  officers,  —  Henry  Wilson 
and  Nathaniel  P.  Banks.  Independent  now  in  for- 
tune and  in  the  control  of  his  own  newspaper.  Colonel 
Schouler  gave  it,  as  editors  usually  did  in  those  days, 
the  flavor  of  his  own  personal  qualities,  which  were 
genial  humor,  courtesy,  and  good  sense.  He  carried 
on  political  controversies  in  his  columns,  and  wrote 
pungent  paragraphs  against  opponents  without  creat- 
ing personal  enmity.  He  argued  convincingly,  but 
with  candor  and  fairness ;  and  as  a  fellow-journalist 
has  said  of  him,  though  full  of  amusing  stories,  and 
rich  in  conversation  and  good-hearted  mimicry,  he 
was  incapable  of  ill-natured  mirthfulness.  Such  was 
William  Schouler  through  his  whole  editorial  and 
political  career,  as  developed  in  this  earliest  stage. 

The  strong  religious  element  in  his  character  should 
not  be  overlooked.     His  children  well  understood  it 

13 


194  BIOGRAPHY. 

and  saw  its  purer  image  in  his  wife's  unworldliness. 
Whatever  may  have  been  his  frailties  or  temptations 
at  any  stage  of  life,  William  Schouler  had  the  strong 
root  of  Christian  endeavor  and  philanthropy.  The 
touching  scenes  of  his  last  hours  revealed  its  depth, 
and  so  did  these  earlier  years  of  aspiring  energy.  In 
politics  or  journalism  he  was  honorable  and  unselfish. 
At  some  young  period  of  life  he  had  become  attached 
to  the  Episcopal  Church  and  joined  its  communion, 
and  his  wife  and  children  all  embraced  and  were 
brought  up  in  the  same  faith.  This  was  a  little 
singular;  for  the  other  Schoulers,  not  less  strenuous 
in  religious  tenets,  chose  rather  to  be  Unitarians  or 
liberals,  like  modern  proselytes  of  New  England ;  and 
a  certain  conservatism  of  political  and  social  tempera- 
ment, perhaps  a  slight  family  estrangement,  seems 
traceable  in  consequence.  While  a  mere  boy  at 
Staten  Island,  William  so  endeared  himself  to  an 
Episcopal  clergyman  there  that  the  two  renewed  a 
strong  personal  intimacy  almost  fifty  years  later  on 
the  strength  of  that  brief  acquaintance.  While  liv- 
ing at  West  Cambridge,  William  and  his  wife  (whose 
relatives  likewise  were  Unitarian)  used  to  ride  down 
on  Sunday  to  old  Christ  Church  near  the  colleges, 
whose  rector.  Rev.  Nicholas  Hoppin,  baptized  their 
three  eldest  children.  When  at  Lowell  the  family 
joined  the  parish  flock  of  Rev.  Theodore  Edson,  and 
William  was  a  zealous  worker  in  St.  Anne's  Church, 
serving  as  Sunday-school  teacher  and  superintendent. 
Both  these  two  clergymen,  when  in  venerable  life,  con- 
ducted the  services  by  request  at  William  Schouler's 
funeral;  and  Dr.  Edson,  a  man  of  wonderful  memory, 
recited  at  a  lapse  of  nearly  thirty  years  the  incidents 
of  his  young  parishioner's  life  and  rare  example  at 
Lowell.     "I  suppose,"  said  he,  "there  is  no  position 


BIOGRAPHY.  195 

so  trying  to  a  Christian  character  as  that  which  he 
filled  so  satisfactorily  to  his  friends, —  the  editor  of 
a  political  paper.  I  had  supposed  it  impossible  for 
such  a  man  to  keep  himself  unspotted  and  to  preserve  a 
spirit  so  sweet  as  his.  His  mind  was  always  unruffled 
by  the  perplexities  and  provocations  of  the  position, 
and  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  he  drew  the  spirit 
from  a  higher  source  than  this  world." 

Of  his  own  first  recollections  as  a  child  our  present 
author  writes:  "The  first  consecutive  incidents  of 
boyhood  I  associate  with  Lowell ;  and  by  the  time  we 
moved  to  our  second  house  there,  in  Tyler  Street, 
the  course  of  my  life  begins  to  unfold  as  clearly  as 
a  panorama.  I  often  visited  Arlington  (or  West 
Cambridge)  while  a  child  after  we  had  moved  from 
the  place,  for  my  grandparents  were  still  there,  and 
uncles,  aunts,  and  cousins  had  not  begun  to  scatter; 
but  being  only  about  two  years  old  when  my  father 
moved  from  the  town,  there  is  but  one  childish  inci- 
dent connected  with  our  residence  there  which  I  can 
recall.  On  one  summer's  afternoon  I  had  lingered 
lonely  about  the  house,  missing  my  parents  and  sister, 
and  most  likely  crying  in  my  grief.  Father  presently 
appeared,  and  taking  me  on  his  shoulder,  carried  me 
some  little  distance  across  the  street  to  a  neighboring 
house,  where  a  large  party  had  collected  in  the 
garden;  and  crowing  at  sight  of  my  mother  and 
sister,  I  entered  the  company,  looking  down  from  my 
lofty  perch  in  glee  and  triumph. 

"The  earliest  distinct  associations  of  one's  child- 
hood seem  to  be  with  particular  objects,  such  as  wall- 
paper patterns,  a  blue  mug,  a  coral  rattle,  or  with 
particular  faces  growing  out  of  primeval  chaos,  none 
of   which   one   can   connect  with   special   incidents. 


196  BIOGRAPHY, 

Then  come  one  or  two  scenes  which  the  memory 
holds,  cast  permanently  upon  the  retina  of  the  inner 
mind  like  an  instantaneous  photograph.  And  thus, 
without  any  distinct  remembrance  of  a  house  on 
Appleton  Street  where  we  first  lived  in  Lowell,  I 
remember  a  vesper  service  closing  at  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  on  that  street,  to  which  my  nurse 
had  taken  me ;  and  I  still  see  the  long-robed  priest 
holding  up  something  at  the  shrine  of  the  high  altar, 
while  censers  swung  and  a  little  bell  was  tinkling. 
So,  too,  visiting  the  Irish  abode  of  this  nurse  on 
another  occasion,  I  see  her  family  paying  me  atten- 
tions ;  and  I  recall  the  peculiar  musty  smell  of  another 
house,  but  nothing  else.  This  nurse  figures  in  my 
earliest  recollections;  and  so  does  another  and  a 
Scotch  one,  most  likely  of  some  later  date,  who  fright- 
ened me  into  a  nightmare  by  showing  me  the  picture 
of  a  celebrated  New  York  murderess,  Polly  Bodine. 

"When  we  moved  from  West  Cambridge  I  was 
about  the  same  age  that  father  had  reached  when 
leaving  Kilbarchan  and  Scotland.  From  the  time  I 
became  four  years  old,  life  and  the  identity  of  exist- 
ence stand  out  clear  and  continuous.  The  white 
wooden  house  on  Tyler  Street,  one  of  a  pair,  with  its 
pretty  garden  on  the  right-hand  side  of  the  entrance, 
which  sloped  behind  in  a  grassy  terrace,  at  whose 
edge  grew  hollyhocks  and  sunflowers,  while  morning- 
glories  adorned  the  front  entrance;  the  interior  of 
the  house,  with  its  regular  bedrooms  and  front  stair- 
case in  the  main  building,  and  its  narrow  entry  of 
sleeping  rooms  and  backstairs  in  the  ell,  while  mid- 
way was  the  connecting  chamber,  where  brother 
Willie  and  I  occupied  a  trundle-bed;  the  aspect  of 
the  quiet  street  and  of  neighboring  houses,  with  the 
cross-street  visible  at  each  end   which   marked  our 


BIOGRAPHY.  197 

terminus,  and  the  single  outlet  opposite  our  house 
towards  Middlesex  Mills,  —  of  these  and  much  more 
in  our  Lowell  home  surroundings  the  picture  is  as 
bright  with  its  colors  as  though  painted  yesterday. 
Brother  Willie  and  I  played  much  together  on  the 
pavement,  and  attracted  attention  where  we  went, 
because  dressed  much  alike  in  blue  or  Scotch  plaid 
suits,  and  yet  unlike  in  features ;  I  with  straight  dark 
hair  and  a  high  complexion,  and  he  with  a  dehcate 
face  and  golden  locks,  which  were  kept  at  this  stage 
of  life  in  long  curls.  With  our  sister  Harriet  we 
had  much  indoor  delight  in  the  attic,  which  here,  as 
afterwards  in  Boston,  and  until  we  grew  much  older, 
served  as  our  common  play-room.  We  would  mimic 
groAvn  people,  dress  up  in  the  cast-off  clothes  of  our 
parents,  play  school-keeping,  housekeeping,  and  store- 
keeping,  much  the  same  as  other  children  do,  and  act 
out  scenes  of  the  many  fairy  books  we  had  absorbed 
and  of  '  Pilgrim's  Progress, '  particularly  in  the  fight 
of  Christian  and  ApoUyon.  When  approaching 
seven,  I  began  to  play  with  other  boys ;  and  several 
of  the  leading  residents  of  Lowell  seem  to  have  drawn 
me  in,  at  one  time  or  another,  to  visit  specially  their 
own  children  and  stop  to  tea ;  on  one  of  which  latter 
occasions  the  hostess  read  aloud  '  Lord  Ullin's 
Daughter,'  a  poem  over  which  I  almost  sobbed. 

"  We  children  took  especial  delight  in  those  bright 
Sunday  evenings  of  the  summer  season,  when  father 
would  take  us  out  on  a  walk,  often  bringing  up  at 
some  fine  mansion  in  Belvidere,  a  suburb  of  the  city, 
where  he  would  stop  for  a  conversation  on  the  piazza 
while  we  made  the  bashful  acquaintance  of  other 
children.  On  very  rare  occasions,  under  mother's 
direction,  we  entertained  other  children  ourselves ;  as 
where  on  one  of  our  birthdays  we  made  up  a  little 


198  BIOGRAPHY. 

picnic  to  a  neighboring  hill,  and  Harrison  silk  badges, 
commemorative  of  the  Whig  President's  death,  of 
which  there  were  a  number  about  the  house,  were 
adapted  for  a  decoration  quite  unfunereal.  I  seem 
to  have  been  launched  early  into  political  knowledge , 
for  when  about  six  I  received  for  my  Christmas 
present  a  gayly  painted  sled  upon  which  was  a  well- 
mounted  engraving  of  all  the  Presidents  of  the  United 
States  from  Washington  to  Polk,  so  that  I  got  toler- 
ably familiar  with  their  names  and  faces  as  I  coasted 
in  their  company  on  many  a  cold  winter's  day.  Of 
exhibitions  that  I  remember  while  in  Lowell,  '  Bunker 
Hill,'  with  its  miniature  soldiers  and  conflagration, 
deserves  a  special  mention ;  and  1  remember  a  moder- 
ate-sized audience  room,  where  was  seen  General 
Tom  Thumb,  with  whom  1  was  measured  as  we  put 
backs  together  standing  on  a  table.  Theatricals  and 
the  footlights,  which  I  so  much  enjoyed  later  in 
Boston,  I  was  not  yet  fit  to  appreciate  ,•  but  some  of 
the  bigger  boys  on  Tyler  Street  admitted  me  as  a 
spectator  to  their  own  performances  one  week  when 
the  stage  fever  was  epidemic  among  our  youth.  A 
mask  through  which  a  pretended  tooth  might  be 
pulled  was  the  source  of  untiring  entertainment  at 
one  of  these  exhibitions;  while  at  another,  which  I 
attended  by  night  in  a  cellar  dimly  lighted  by  candles, 
duels  with  wooden  swords  dealt  infinite  death,  and 
one  of  the  boys  —  ^  Stuttering  Sam, '  as  we  called 
him  —  ran  from  the  right  wing  with  dr^wn  weapon 
in  hand,  shouting:  'W-h-hat  made  you  kill  my 
brother  for?  St-t-and  back  there,  st-t-and  back.' 
Demure  spectator  that  I  was,  these  older  fellows 
little  knew  my  young  talent  for  mimicry,  or  the  sense 
of  humor  which  has  predestined  them  for  print. 

"The  first  school  which  I  regularly  attended  was 


BIOGRAPHY.  199 

kept  by  Miss  Whittemore,  an  elderly  family  acquaint- 
ance who  came  from  West  Cambridge  and  lived  with 
us  during  the  brief  time  that  she  remained  in  Lowell. 
She  understood  well  the  art  of  teaching,  and  had  a 
good  number  of  boys  and  girls,  some  of  whom  had 
even  reached  their  teens.  The  school,  situated  in  a 
lane  which  made  a  good  ten  minutes'  walk  from 
home,  was  a  detached  building,  provided  with  long 
desks  and  benches  after  the  old  fashion,  which  were 
painted  green  and  ornamented  with  putty  to  hide  the 
marks  of  earlier  defacement  by  the  jack-knife.  I 
should  judge  that  this  was  some  deserted  district 
school  hired  for  private  occasion.  The  teacher  sat 
by  a  stove,  behind  which  we  would  gather  in  turn 
on  cold  winter  days  to  get  a  supply  of  animal  heat 
sufficient  to  carry  back  to  our  seats.  A  large  open 
lot  in  the  rear  of  our  schoolhouse  made  an  ample 
playground  for  recess,  especially  when  a  pile  of 
lumber  upon  it  gave  us  something  to  climb  upon  and 
explore,  or  when  in  some  large  cart  belonging  to  the 
mill  just  beyond  we  could  sit  close  and  eat  a  water- 
melon which  the  oldest  boy  divided  among  us.  In 
my  school  life  and  lessons  I  progressed  tolerably  well 
for  so  juvenile  a  specimen;  and  in  reading,  spelling, 
grammar,  and  writing  I  must  have  proved  quite  pro- 
ficient-, for  I  read  whatever  I  could  lay  hold  of  in 
school  or  out,  as  I  long  continued  to  do,  and  knew 
the  contents  of  the  '  school  readers  '  almost  by  heart. 
A  pathetic  poem  or  bit  of  prose  roused  my  emotions 
deeply,  and  1  seem  to  have  had  some  unusual  gift  of 
entering  into  the  feelings  of  others  and  interpreting 
them.  An  imaginative  passage  in  our  little  reading- 
book,  which  I  still  recall,  stirred  me  so  as  I  read  it 
aloud  one  afternoon  in  my  turn  while  we  sat  in  class, 
that  I  made  a  visible  impression  upon  the  school ;  but 


200  BIOGRAPHY. 

the  boy  who  followed  me  started  off  with  such 
emulous  exaggeration  upon  the  next  and  tamer  para- 
graph, that  the  whole  class  burst  into  a  laugh,  for  the 
anti-climax  was  too  much  for  them. 

"  After  Miss  Whittemore  gave  up  teaching,  and  for 
about  a  year  before  we  moved  from  Lowell,  I  attended 
the  public  grammar  school,  of  which  a  Mr.  Balch 
was  head  master.  Children  older  for  the  most  part 
than  myself  occupied  the  main  hall,  the  girls  ranging 
on  one  side  of  the  centre  aisle,  the  boys  on  the  other; 
and  there  were  side-rooms  for  special  recitations  of 
the  several  classes  of  each  sex.  Here  I  became  pain- 
fully aware  of  the  flogging  abuse  which  in  those  days 
made  so  prominent  a  part  of  public-school  discipline ; 
and  though  n:ever  chastised  personally  at  school  in 
my  life,  I  was  tortured  in  soul,  here  and  under  one 
particular  usher  afterwards  in  a  Boston  school,  by 
the  pain  and  indignities  which  I  saw  inflicted  con- 
tinually upon  other  male  companions,  often,  as  it 
seemed  to  me  wantonly,  and  for  such  trivial  offences 
as  an  imperfect  lesson.  Certain  boys  were  called 
forward  day  after  day  to  writhe  and  distort  their 
faces  upon  the  platform  before  their  assembled  fellows 
of  both  sexes,  as  a  regular  interlude  of  instruction, 
until  I  would  feel  towards  them  as  though  they  were 
education's  martyrs.  Young  children  must  have 
taken  in  the  satire  of  all  this,  for  whenever  they 
played  school  together,  they  did  little  more  than 
whip  each  other  round.  But  Mr.  Balch,  who  had  an 
agreeable  way  with  most  of  us,  and  1  dare  say  a 
kindly  heart,  gave  a  comical  air  to  his  castigation; 
for  he  would  point  to  his  young  victim,  stigmatizing 
him  as  '  thou  lazy,  loafing,  idle  boy,  *  and  calling 
him  up,  make  him  take  hold  of  his  toes  before  the 
dread  cane  was  laid  on  from  behind.     I  must  have 


BIOGRAPHY.  201 

impressed  this  master  by  my  proficiency  for  a  boy  of 
six,  for  upon  my  entrance  he  placed  me  among  big 
boys  in  one  of  the  higher  classes,  where  I  readily 
held  my  own.  On  Saturday  afternoons  in  winter 
the  Lowell  '  Paddies  '  and  '  Yankees  '  used  to  have 
snow-ball  battles,  one  faction  chasing  another  through 
the  street ;  and  in  one  of  these  encounters  I  handed 
over  some  well-iced  missiles  of  my  o\^ti  preparation 
as  a  party  of  school-boys  charged  past  my  front 
gate.  '  Who  is  that  ? '  asked  one  of  another  as  they 
ran  by  me  to  the  fray.  '  Oh  !  that 's  the  little  cuss 
in  the  third  class ! '  replied  the  other.  Going  into 
the  house  I  asked  what  '  cuss  '  meant,  and  was  told 
that  it  stood  for  '  customer. ' 

"Our  religious  education  in  the  family  was  well 
heeded  by  my  good  mother.  At  her  knee  we  prayed 
and  learned  and  listened  to  the  Bible;  and  a  little 
book  '  Line  upon  Line, '  one  of  a  well-known  series 
which  tells  the  Scripture  story  for  children,  imparted 
such  delight  from  her  reading,  that  to  this  day  the 
patriarchs  of  Genesis,  Joseph  and  his  brethren,  and 
the  conduct  of  the  Israelites  from  Egypt  to  the 
promised  land,  have  an  unwonted  hold  upon  my 
religious  feelings.  Mother  watched  the  growth  of 
our  young  natures,  and  in  her  solicitude  to  make  us 
good  tried  various  experiments  from  time  to  time, 
such  as  recording  our  Christian  progress  through 
the  week,  which  record  she  would  read  aloud  on 
Saturday  night,  or  making  a  little  weekly  allowance 
on  that  day  conditional  upon  good  behavior.  To 
her  unerring  sense  of  justice  and  proper  discipline  — 
for  father  tended  a  little  to  indulgence  —  and  withal 
to  her  gentle  prudence,  her  children  owe  more  than 
they  can  ever  express.  On  Sundays  we  went  to 
church,   or  to  Sunday-school  at  least,  and  enjoyed 


202  BIOGRAPHY. 

doing  so.  Dr.  Edson,  our  pastor,  among  other 
gifts,  had  that  of  remembering  names  and  faces, 
like  the  great  Henry  Clay,  to  whom  he  bore  some 
personal  resemblance;  and  living  so  many  years  in 
Lowell,  as  he  did,  it  used  to  be  said  of  him  that  he 
knew  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the  city,  and 
kept  the  trace  of  each  individual's  career  in  life. 
In  the  rear  of  our  stone  St.  Anne's  Church  were  two 
Sunday-school  buildings  of  plain  wood.  To  the 
smaller  one  we  were  consigned  until  well  grounded 
in  the  church  catechism,  after  which  we  were  pro- 
moted to  the  larger  one.  This  promotion  I  gained 
in  good  time,  with  others  of  our  little  class,  one  of 
whom,  now  rector  of  one  of  the  most  influential 
churches  in  New  York  City,  and  famed  throughout 
the  land,  became,  as  chance  directed  long  after,  a 
college  classmate  and  dear  personal  friend.  Our 
teacher  herself  accompanied  us  into  the  large  Sunday- 
school,  rather  than  be  separated  from  such  pupils. 
Here  father  was  superintendent,  and  in  the  smaller 
Sunday-school,  at  one  time  while  the  over-crowded 
church  was  being  enlarged,  he  assembled  many  of 
the  younger  folk  of  the  parish  for  morning  prayer, 
conducted  by  himself  each  Sunday,  and  read  to  us 
some  suitable  tale  in  place  of  a  sermon. 

"  I  showed  early  a  fondness  for  music,  and  through 
life  until  my  deafness  became  too  positive  an  impedi- 
ment, I  would  gather  tunes  and  strains  quickly  by 
the  ear,  which  mingled  with  my  visible  impressions 
of  events  and  served  easily  to  recall  them.  My 
brothers  and  sisters  were  also  full  of  music,  —  a  natu- 
ral gift  inherited  perhaps  from  grandfather,  though 
father  played  the  flute  and  mother  sang  simple  airs 
in   the  earlier  years  of   our   childhood.     Sometimes 


BIOGRAPHY.  203 

when  at  a  neighbor's  house,  in  these  years,  they 
would  put  me  forAvard  to  sing  one  of  the  Whig 
campaign  songs  with  which  I  was  familiar.  Of 
church  tunes,  too,  of  psalmody  and  church  organs,  I 
took  early  cognizance,  not  to  add  of  churches  them- 
selves of  various  denominations,  of  their  sextons  and 
their  bells.  So  fond  was  I,  while  a  boy  under  ten, 
of  seeing  a  bell  swing  in  the  belfry  of  mill  or  meet- 
ing-house, throwing  out  its  clear  tones  and  then 
pausing  inverted  on  the  wheel,  that  I  would  climb 
up  into  an  attic  window  to  watch  some  of  these 
monitors  performing  their  functions  together  at  the 
appointed  hour ;  and  I  remember  that  on  the  Fourth 
of  July  which  followed  our  removal  to  Boston,  I 
pulled  by  a  string  an  old  dinner  bell  which  I  had 
hung  in  an  upper  window  of  our  house,  at  the  hours 
of  sunrise,  noon,  and  sunset,  agreeably  to  the  pub- 
lished civic  programme  of  the  day;  in  blended  unison, 
so  far  as  might  be,  with  the  metallic  friend  whose 
motions  beckoned  from  a  church  steeple  visible  not 
far  distant.  With  these  musical  fancies  to  cherish, 
I  wandered  one  afternoon  while  very  young  into  the 
basement  of  a  Baptist  church  in  Lowell,  where  a 
singing-school  was  in  progress;  and  being  well 
received,  I  readily  learned  the  catch  '  Scotland's 
burning,'  as  the  trifle  appropriate  to  the  calendar. 
My  good  parents,  appreciating  this  love  of  music, 
allowed  me  presently  to  attend  for  a  term  the  best 
singing-school  in  the  city;  and  there  I  picked  up 
some  excellent  tunes  adapted  from  such  masters  as 
Bellini,  Weber,  and  De  Beriot,  which  have  stayed 
by  me  all  my  life.  One  of  them  I  afterwards  heard 
played  by  a  brass  band  which  came  one  night  to  our 
house  for  a  serenade  after  the  November  elections. 
''While  we  liyed  in  Lowell  father  took   his   first 


204  BIOGRAPHY. 

and  only  trip  abroad,  remaining  several  months  in 
and  about  Great  Britain,  and  describing  his  sights 
and  impressions  in  a  series  of  editorial  letters  for  his 
newspaper.  During  his  absence  mother  once  jour- 
neyed with  us  children  to  Boston,  where  our  daguer- 
reotypes were  taken  in  a  group  for  the  benefit  of 
Scotch  relatives  who  still  preserve  them.  This 
day's  visit  gave  me  my  earliest  recollections  of  the 
more  solid  and  sombre  brick  city  which  was  to 
become  our  domicile  a  year  or  two  later.  Another 
trip  thither  was  made  on  my  express  account,  and 
merged  into  a  three  months'  stay  at  West  Cambridge 
with  my  grandparents.  I  had  passed  too  much  time, 
it  appears,  in  stooping  over  my  books,  and  malforma- 
tion of  the  chest  was  threatened;  but  the  Boston 
physician  who  was  consulted  prescribed  a  simple 
regimen  which  resulted  in  an  entire  cure.  Grand- 
mother gave  me  a  shower-bath  every  morning,  and 
administered  regular  doses  of  a  bitter  sarsaparilla, 
beyond  which  I  had  simply  to  idle  about  in  the  open 
air,  enjoying  myself  as  I  might,  and  let  all  reading- 
and  study  alone.  The  three  months  passed  thus 
happily  in  the  society  of  the  two  old  people,  whose 
thoughtful  kindness  was  unfailing.  Framed  engrav- 
ings hung  on  their  walls  of  '  Waverley, '  '  Fergus 
Maclvor, '  and  *  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Bart.,'  all  of  which 
they  patiently  explained  to  me.  I  would  gather 
burrs  (not  flowers)  on  a  neighboring  bank,  in  com- 
pany with  another  boy,  and  then  pretend  to  peddle 
them  about;  and  I  paid  constant  visits  in  person  to 
the  factories,  where  I  became  acquainted  with  every 
workman,  young  or  old,  and  learned  the  whole  pro- 
cess of  printing  satinets  and  calicoes,  and  the  minutiae 
of  the  machinery,  from  the  cool  water-wheel  where 
motive  power  began  to  the  heated  calender  and  the 


BIOGRAPHY.  205 

brushing  machine  which  gave  to  the  figured  cloth  its 
final  finish.  A  brown-paper  hat  was  made  for  me, 
such  as  the  operatives  wore.  I  would  rig  up  con- 
trivances of  my  own  on  the  premises  so  as  to  imagine 
myself  hard  at  accompanying  work;  and  once  or 
twice  the  good  Scotchman  in  charge  of  the  printing- 
cylinder  admitted  me  to  the  supreme  dignity  of  mov- 
ing the  lever  that  started  or  stopped  its  copper  plunge 
through  the  dye-trough.  Grandfather  took  me  with 
'him  on  various  rides  which  I  greatly  enjoyed. 
Together  he  and  I  went  one  evening  to  old  Cambridge 
to  see  a  circus,  the  first  I  ever  witnessed ;  and  per- 
haps the  long  drive  tired  me  out,  for  the  illuminated 
tent,  the  rising  benches  filled  with  spectators  who 
drank  lemonade,  the  spangled  riders,  the  chalky- 
faced  clown,  the  horses  that  pranced  about  the  ring 
to  the  music  of  a  brass  band  and  of  cracking  whips, 
left  in  my  little  brain  but  a  confused  impression. 

"  I  said  and  did  some  droll  things  about  the  house 
on  this  visit,  which  my  mirthful  grandmother  never 
ceased  to  talk  about  in  the  family.  One  evening 
some  elderly  neighbors  called,  one  of  whom  turned 
to  me,  as  callers  will  do  when  they  want  to  compli- 
ment their  host  by  taking  notice  of  his  young  folk, 
and  asked  me  what  1  meant  to  do  when  I  grew  up. 
Taking  the  question  in  all  seriousness,  and  having 
in  memory  a  passage  from  one  of  my  books,  I  at 
once  replied  that  I  didn't  know  whether  I  should  be 
'  a  machine-printer  or  a  minister  of  the  gospel. '  This 
amused  the  whole  room,  and  the  story  got  repeated. 
Another  day,  after  returning  from  a  pleasant  fore- 
noon's ride  to  Woburn  with  grandfather,  in  the 
course  of  which  1  had  found  many  objects  to  notice 
and  ask  about,  one  of  them  being  a  saw-mill,  I  pro- 
ceeded to  the  covered  side  porch  which  I  had  deco 


206  BIOGRAPHY. 

rated  with  my  sign  as  a  '  slate-drawing  room,'  and 
made  a  picture  of  a  horse  and  chaise  on  my  slate 
while  dinner  was  preparing.  Grandfather  and  I 
were  sketched  as  occupants  of  the  carriage,  while 
the  saw-mill  rose  from  the  background.  After  flour- 
ishing with  the  pencil  as  children  will  do,  and  giving 
to  horse  and  chaise  some  peculiarly  elegant  trappings, 
it  occurred  to  me  to  add,  as  a  title  for  so  artistic  a 
production,  'Rich  people  going  to  Woburn;'  and 
with  the  picture  thus  inscribed,  I  showed  it  at  dinner 
to  my  grandparents.-  The  laugh  with  which  they 
greeted  it  I  had  not  looked  for;  but  this  tale,  too, 
they  sent  upon  the  family  rounds;  and  upon  the 
whole,  fond  as  they  evidently  were  of  me,  I  think 
they  gained  and  gave  the  impression  that  their  fkst 
grandson  was  rather  an  old  head. 

"During  this  three  months'  visit,  which,  by  the 
way,  made  quite  a  distinct  epoch  of  my  early  child- 
hood, a  little  sister  was  born  in  Lowell,  who  died 
within  a  few  weeks.  Of  both  her  birth  and  her 
death  I  was  apprised  at  West  Cambridge  by  my 
grandparents,  and  she  was  the  only  member  of  my 
father's  immediate  family  whom  I  never  saw  nor 
knew;  for  a  kind  Providence  spared  all  the  rest  of 
us,  whether  born  already  or  later,  for  many  years  of 
united  sympathy  and  happiness." 


IV. 

1847-1855. 

Colonel  Schouler's  marked  success  with  the 
"Lowell  Courier,"  and  his  increasing  renown  as  a 
legislator  and  political  speaker  and  manager,  attracted 


BIOGRAPHY.  207 

by  1847  the  attention  of  Daniel  Webster,  whose 
personal  acquaintance  he  had  already  made,  and  of 
other  Massachusetts  leaders  in  the  great  national 
party  whose  fortunes  he  served.  William  Hayden 
now  retiring  from  the  chief  editorship  of  the  "  Boston 
Atlas,"  the  recognized  organ  at  this  time  of  the  intel- 
lect, culture,  wealth,  and  power  of  the  New  England 
Whigs,  Schouler  was  induced  to  become  the  con- 
ductor and  a  co-proprietor  of  the  paper  in  his  place. 
He  sold  out  the  "  Lowell  Courier "  accordingly,  and 
moved  to  Boston  in  the  spring  of  1847  to  enter  upon 
his  wider  vocation  as  a  journalist. 

In  after  years  William  Schouler  spoke  often  of 
the  "Lowell  Courier"  as  his  "first  love."  It  had 
been  his  own  newspaper  as  well  as  his  earliest,  and 
he  had  so  widened  its  influence  and  circulation  as  to 
leave  it  a  handsome  property.  He  carried  the  same 
ambition  into  the  "Atlas,"  and  showed  talents  and 
energy  worthy  of  a  successor  in  the  enterprise  which 
had  made  Richard  Haughton  and  William  Hayden 
so  illustrious.  American  journalism  in  that  day  did 
not,  as  it  does  now,  depend  greatly  upon  costly 
competition  in  the  gathering  of  news;  but  editorial 
leaders  from  d-ay  to  day,  which  discussed  the  imme- 
diate political  situation  to  influence  voters,  were  the 
main  reliance  of  the  daily  press  for  power  and  for- 
tune; and  a  continual  sparring  was  withal  kept  up 
in  the  editorial  columns  with  journals  of  the  opposi- 
tion, so  that  editors  themselves  maintained  a  certain 
personality  before  their  readers  which  has  long  since 
passed  away.  Cordial  generosity,  fairness,  and  kind- 
liness of  heart  had  been  Schouler's  strong  character- 
istics in  conducting  his  Lowell  paper ;  upon  which  he 
had  employed  other  pens  in  subordination  to  his  own 
good  temper,  restraining  the  bitter  and  slashing  style 


208  BIOGRAPHY. 

of  tlie  talented  assistant  who,  unlike  himself,  was 
wanting  in  reverence  and  fixed  opinions.  That  same 
good  temper  and  high  honor  shone  from  all  that  he 
ever  afterwards  wrote,  or  spoke,  or  did,  as  editor  or 
statesman.  "His  editorial  bearing,"  says  the  Demo- 
cratic journalist  of  Boston  with  whom  he  now  sparred 
most,  himself  a  man  of  the  utmost  urbanity  and  good 
feeling,  "  was  ever  marked  by  the  discreetness  that 
includes  consideration  of  others,  by  gentleness  as 
well  as  a  masculine  courage  and  strong  self-assertion, 
and  by  those  indescribable  courtesies  and  amenities 
which  are  the  offspring  and  evidence  of  a  kind  and 
generous  heart.  In  his  professional  contests  on 
political  questions  with  this  journal,  he  excited  no 
feelings  but  those  of  respect  for  his  ability,  of  esteem 
for  his  integrity  of  opinion,  and  of  affectionate  regard 
for  his  rare  qualities  of  amiability  and  genuine 
goodness." 

For  a  while  all  went  smoothly  and  happily  with 
the  "  Boston  Atlas "  under  the  new  direction. 
Schouler's  associates  were  all  loyal,  true,  men  of 
unblemished  honor,  capable  of  appreciating  and  of 
co-operating  with  him.  An  editorial  correspondence 
from  Washington  was  kept  up  by  one  or  another  of 
the  two  nominal  proprietors  while  Congress  remained 
in  session ;  and  Colonel  Schouler,  in  the  course  of  a 
considerable  sojourn  at  the  national  capital  now  and 
later,  profited  by  a  wide  personal  acquaintance  with 
our  most  eminent  national  statesmen  of  the  period, 
many  of  whom  he  has  described  in  his  "  Personal  and 
Political  Recollections."  This  day  of  the  "Atlas" 
was  the  day  in  Massachusetts  of  Webster  and 
Ashmun,  of  Edward  Everett,  Abbott  Lawrence,  and 
Robert  C.  Winthrop,  and  abounded  in  public  men  of 
the  most  brilliant  and  powerful  qualities.     Schouler 


BIOGRAPHY,  209 

was  admitted  to  their  secret  councils,  and  shared  the 
responsibihty  of  their  political  plans.  One  of  the 
most  touching  obituary  notices  of  Daniel  Webster, 
in  1852,  was  from  his  pen,  and  recalled  personal 
scenes  at  Marshfield  when  Webster  was  in  his 
grandest  mood  of  elevated  thought.  The  influence 
of  the  "Boston  Atlas"  soon  culminated,  as  did  that 
of  the  Whig  party,  in  the  election  and  succession  of 
Zachary  Taylor  to  the  Presidency;  and  by  1850  this 
newspaper  was  recognized  and  pronounced  the  lead- 
ing Whig  paper  in  New  England,  and  that  upon 
whose  support  Daniel  Webster  chiefly  relied.  But 
when  Webster  made  that  year  his  famous  7th  of 
March  speech,  in  which  he  abandoned  the  strong 
ground  against  slavery  extension  which  the  soundest 
Massachusetts  Whigs,  and  Schouler  among  them, 
had  occupied,  and  supported  the  compromise  pallia- 
tives proposed  by  Henry  Clay,  the  "  Atlas  "  denounced 
the  speech  and  refused  to  follow  him.  Webster  had 
long  been  political  dictator  to  the  leading  Whigs  of 
Boston,  and  this  rebellious  protest  of  an  imported 
editor  was  a  daring  and  dangerous  act  of  independ- 
ence, though  the  administration  oflice-holders  in  that 
city  and  the  popular  conscience  of  Massachusetts 
which  Schouler  well  understood,  sustained  the  news- 
paper. President  Taylor's  sudden  death,  soon  after, 
which  upset  the  best  Whig  calculations,  the  accession 
of  Vice-President  Fillmore  with  Webster  as  premier  in 
his  cabinet,  and  the  actual  passage  of  the  compromise 
measures  against  those  wiser  plans  which  Taylor 
and  Seward  had  formulated,  brought  serious  embar- 
rassments upon  the  "Atlas;"  taking  away  the  pecu- 
niary support  of  many  who  had  been  Schouler's 
warmest  political  friends,  and  seriously  and,  as  it 
proved,  fatally,  in  the  inevitable  final  rupture  of  the 

14 


210  BIOGRAPHY. 

great  Whig  party,  injuring  the  prosperity  of  his 
newspaper.  For  editors  in  those  days  rose  or  fell  by 
party  politics.  Schouler  had  Massachusetts  and  the 
mass  of  northern  Whigs  on  his  side,  as  the  Presi- 
dential nomination  of  Scott  showed,  whom  the 
"  Atlas  "  supported,  and  the  Presidential  vote  of  the 
State  in  the  fall  of  1852 ;  but  Webster's  disappointed 
ambition  and  death  during  the  canvass  were  reflected 
in  the  Democratic  vote  of  Boston,  and  the  "  stop  my 
paper,"  and  "stop  my  advertisement"  of  Boston 
merchants  and  financiers  which  now  followed,  com- 
pelled the  independent  editor  to  sell  out  from  the 
concern  and  retire  to  some  distant  State.  Upon  the 
advice  of  Horace  Greeley  and  others  he  made  Ohio 
and  the  West  his  new  home ;  purchasing  an  interest 
in  the  staid  and  respectable  "Cincinnati  Gazette," 
of  which  he  became  the  responsible  editor.  He  left 
Boston  and  New  England  in  the  fall  of  1853,  and  in 
the  spring  of  1854  removed  his  whole  family  —  per- 
manently, as  he  believed  —  to  the  Buckeye  State, 
with  whose  flourishing  emporium  he  had  become 
already  identified  as  a  journalist  since  the  previous 
November. 

But  Schouler's  popularity  in  Boston  had  been 
after  all  abundant;  and  many  who  shared  his  own 
clear  insight  into  the  future  of  American  politics 
loved  him  the  more  for  having  so  courageously 
opposed  that  grand  but  fleeting  compromise  of  1850. 
Before  he  wrote  his  leader  in  the  "Atlas,"  in 
November,  1852,  upon  the  "Waterloo  defeat  of  the 
Whig  party,"  he  had  been  repeatedly  chosen  as  a 
Boston  representative  to  the  legislature,  as  before  he 
had  been  from  Lowell.  As  an  offset  to  his  non-elec- 
tion, this  year,  the  Whig  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  Massachusetts  Legislature  of  1853  chose  him 


BIOGRAPHY.  211 

Clerk  by  way  of  compliment;  and  this  same  year,  a 
few  months  before  he  moved  to  Ohio,  he  served  as  a 
member  of  the  Massachusetts  Constitutional  Conven- 
tion of  1853,  in  whose  proceedings  he  proved  himself 
a  progressive  but  judicious  advocate,  midway  between 
the  strong  opposing  forces,  and  one  of  the  best 
tacticians  on  the  floor. 

A  growing  disrelish  for  that  sycophantic  relation 
which  custom  in  those  days  assigned  to  political 
editors  may  be  traced  in  the  following  passage  of 
Schouler's  speech  in  the  Convention  from  which  we 
have  already  quoted :  ^  "  A  great  deal  has  been  said 
about  the  licentiousness  of  the  public  press.  Now, 
sir,  I  happen  to  have  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the 
public  press,  and  I  must  say  that  the  most  licentious 
part  of  my  experience  connected  with  it  has  been 
the  defence  of  men  in  high  stations."  This  sally 
provoked  great  laughter  and  merriment,  as  he  had 
meant  it  to  do ;  but  there  was  a  touch  of  secret  sad- 
ness in  the  confession.  His  connection  with  the 
press  was  destined  to  last  several  years  longer,  in 
one  precarious  sense  or  another;  but  he  never  again 
felt  such  enthusiasm  for  the  editor's  vocation  as  he 
had  felt  before. 

"During  the  seven  years  that  we  lived  in  Boston 
before  moving  to  Cincinnati,"  writes  our  present 
author,  "we  occupied  three  different  houses  in  suc- 
cession. First  we  went  to  Harrison  Avenue,  at  that 
time  a  fashionable  street  for  residences ;  next  to  an 
ample  old  house  on  Pearl  Street,  just  at  the  foot  of 
Fort  Hill,  with  attractive  private  grounds  close  by, 
and  mercantile  business  creeping  towards  us;  and 
last  to  a  lovely  cottage  on  the   beach   at   Jeffries' 

1  1  Mass.  Debates  639;  supra,  p.  189. 


212  BIOGRAPHY, 

Point,  East  Boston,  which  commanded  a  full  pros- 
pect of  the  harbor,  and  where  I  passed  the  three 
happiest  years  of  a  very  hajDpy  childhood.  Another 
brother  and  sister  by  this  time  completed  the  family 
circle,  —  John,  who  was  born  in  Lowell,  November 
30,  1846;  and  Fanny,  born  in  East  Boston,  January 
19,  1852.  A  closer  equality  in  age  had  bound  the 
three  eldest  of  us  more  closely  together  in  childhood's 
companionship;  but  we  were  all  affectionate." 

James  was  placed  in  the  Brimmer  School  when 
the  family  first  moved  to  Boston;  but  when  the 
Quincy  School  district  was  set  off,  a  few  months  later, 
he  became  one  of  the  original  pupils  of  this  new 
institution.  Under  its  first  head  master,  John  D. 
Philbrick,  the  Quincy  School  furnished  Boston's 
grand  model  of  public  instruction;  and  the  con- 
spicuous success  of  that  illustrious  educator  in  organ- 
izing and  directing  so  large  a  body  of  pupils  led 
to  his  later  promotion  to  school  superintendence. 
James  graduated  from  the  Quincy  School  in  1851, 
first  on  its  list  of  Franklin  medal  scholars ;  and  then 
entering  the  Boston  Latin  School,  he  remained  there 
long  enough  to  become  well  grounded  in  the  Latin 
language  and  grammar  and  insensibly  to  pave  the 
way  to  a  college  education.  But  James  at  that  time 
had  no  idea  of  entering  college ;  and  with  a  sturdy 
idea  of  earning  his  own  livelihood,  he  prevailed  upon 
his  parents,  when  about  thirteen,  to  let  him  go  into 
a  bookstore.  A  few  weeks,  however,  of  early  rising 
and  hard  drudgery  convinced  him  that  a  little  more 
school  was  preferable,  and,  sent  this  time  to  Chauncy 
Hall,  a  private  school,  he  zealously  pursued  once 
more  his  other  studies,  letting  classics  alone,  until 
the  family  removal  West  in  1854. 

As  a  Boston  school -boy  the  youthful  James  showed 


BIOGRAPHY,  213 

a  certain  conspicuousness  of  his  own  which  strongly 
attracted  the  affection  of  his  teachers,  at  the  same 
time  that  his  modesty  and  unobtrusive  disposition 
made  him  less  of  a  leader  among  school  companions, 
less,  perhaps,  of  a  recognized  hero,  than  a  boy  of  his 
mental  attainments  is  apt  to  be.  Children  cannot 
analyze  a  subtle  character,  but  trust  to  surface  appear- 
ances. Something  of  domestic  seclusion  clung  to 
him.  If  ambitious,  it  was  not  along  the  lines  which 
other  boys  most  sought  for  distinction;  and  the 
impression  he  chiefly  gave  to  his  mates  Avas  that  of 
a  genial  and  gentle  fellow  who  got  on  well  and  made 
friends,  but  left  others  of  more  daring  self-assertion 
to  lead.  His  home  life  wove  about  him  a  web 
almost  impenetrable  to  others ;  nor  had  he  any  great 
taste  for  the  usual  boyish  sports,  though  he  bore  his 
moderate  part  in  base-ball,  swimming,  coasting,  skat- 
ing, and  the  like  athletics  of  the  day.  His  strong 
physical  endurance  as  he  grew  older  owed  nothing 
in  fact  to  athletic  training;  but  sound  health  and 
morals,  a  cheerful  temper,  and  simple  out-of-doors 
life  explain  the  whole  of  it.  While  living  at  East 
Boston  he  walked  about  five  miles  each  way  to 
school  and  back,  in  all  weathers,  and  made  no  merit 
of  it. 

Theatre-going,  concerts,  and  most  of  all  the 
Museum  fairy  spectacles  and  the  Ravel  family  (to 
all  of  which  performances  editors  had  free  passes) 
were  now  his  great  delight  in  holiday  recreation ;  and 
with  spools  and  shifting  books  for  his  actors  and 
scenery  he  would  reproduce  what  he  had  Avitnessed 
by  the  hour  together  before  his  nearest  sister  and 
brother,  whose  tastes  were  similar;  going  so  far  as 
to  purchase  play-books  and  make  paper  heads  and 
costumes  for  his  mimic  stage.    Once,  with  other  boys, 


214  BIOGRAPHY. 

he  got  up  a  very  tolerable  afternoon  performance  of 
"Box  and  Cox."  His  love  of  imaginative  books  and 
reading  was  all  the  while  incessant.  From  fairy 
books  and  Jacob  Abbott,  he  became  an  eager  de- 
vourer  of  poetry  and  fiction,  and  in  the  winter  nights 
he  would  read  aloud  the  latest  number  of  Dickens' 
new  novel,  as  the  family  gathered  about  the  astral 
lamp.  Shakespeare,  the  Waverley  Novels,  Macaulay's 
History,  and  other  treasures  of  his  father's  good 
library  he  ransacked  freely;  and  upon  his  father's 
advice  he  began  in  1853,  though  with  less  spontaneous 
ardor,  to  dip  into  the  biographies  of  American  states- 
men, such  as  John  Jay,  Wirt,  and  Aaron  Burr,  for 
the  last  of  Avhom  he  conceived  somewhat  of  a 
romantic  fascination  until  time  taught  him  a  better 
estimate.  That  "vast  vacuity,"  of  which  Milton 
speaks,  he  was  constantly  filling  up  with  erudition, 
worthy  or  worthless,  which  enriched  his  English 
composition. 

At  school,  from  all  that  we  can  gather,  James 
ranked  high,  not  by  reason  of  any  intellectual  bril- 
liancy such  as  burns  out  its  lamp,  but  because  of  a 
strong  healthy  all-round  development;  and  his  rank 
was  aided  by  exemplary  conduct  and  a  punctual 
clock-work  regularity  at  his  tasks.  It  was  for  this 
manifestation  of  high  marks  throughout  that  his  first 
teacher  at  the  Quincy  School,  one  afternoon,  when 
the  marks  were  read  out,  bade  him  take  his  cap  and 
books  and  follow  him  to  the  highest  room,  where  he 
was  at  once  installed,  skipping  the  sub-master  in 
the  middle  of  a  term,  —  a  public-school  promotion 
quite  out  of  course.  The  same  general  thoroughness 
ranked  him  first  w^hen  he  graduated;  and  his  prin- 
cipal, John  D.  Philbrick,  long  alluded  in  his  educa- 
tional lectures  to  this  young  boy  as  one  who  during 


BIOGRAPHY.  215 

four  years  was  not  absent  or  tardy  but  once,  when 
accident  excused  him.  In  the  mastery  of  good 
English  at  all  points  James's  studies  appeared  best; 
his  proficiency  being  most  marked  in  reading,  spell- 
ing, grammar,  and  parsing,  the  choice  of  words  and 
the  construction  of  sentences.  Less  for  thought, 
perhaps,  than  for  expression,  at  so  early  an  age,  his 
English  compositions  passed  for  models  in  his  class ; 
fiction,  poetry,  the  discussion  of  social  topics,  and 
historical  description  furnished  the  substance  of 
them;  and  one  upon  "Napoleon  Bonaparte,"  written 
at  the  age  of  ten,  is  a  good  example  at  hand  of  his 
early  skill  in  gathering  facts  and  narrating  them. 
But  his  literary  aptness  is  still  better  illustrated  by 
a  little  newspaper,  which  he  used  to  write  out  on 
double-columned  foolscap,  and  issue  (for  the  home 
circle  exclusively)  as  "editor  and  publisher,"  when 
only  eleven  years  old,  styling  it  the  "  Family  Visitor 
and  Home  Journal."  He  decorated  it  with  a  head- 
line and  the  motto  "Nil  desperandum  "  (which  he 
had  picked  up  long  before  studying  Latin),  and  a 
pen-and-ink  picture  of  the  Pearl  Street  residence 
which  constituted  his  "office."  Of  this  paper,  which 
he  carried  on  in  1850,  by  way  of  home  recreation, 
issuing  it  each  week  or  fortnight,  several  numbers 
were  preserved  by  his  mother ;  and  the  specimen  now 
before  us  contains,  in  addition  to  school  items,  the 
seventh  chapter  of  a  temperance  tale,  "It  is  all  for 
the  Best,"  an  instalment  of  "Alfred  the  Great "  under 
"Lives  of  Celebrated  Men,"  and  a  spirited  poem 
"  New  England, "  —  productions  all  original  and 
written  out  in  the  neatest  chirography  possible,  with- 
out a  single  inaccuracy  in  spelling  or  grammar. 

In  one  other  respect,  certainly,  James's  excellence 
was  acknowledged  by  his  schoolmates  wherever  he 


216  BIOGRAPHY. 

went;  and  this  same  excellence  procured  for  him  a 
second  and  then  a  first  Boylston  prize  when  he  was 
at  college.  This  was  in  declamation,  —  a  talent  which 
first  shone  out  at  the  Quincy  School.  At  a  Boston 
temperance  convention  three  or  four  choice  boys  from 
the  public  schools  were  selected  to  deliver  little 
speeches  arranged  for  them ;  and  one  of  these  was  our 
present  author.  "My  cUhut  on  a  public  platform," 
he  writes,  "was  at  the  Tremont  Temple,  when  ten 
years  old,  and  I  repeated  my  harangue  from  a  stand 
on  Boston  Common  the  next  day.  My  chief  sensa- 
tion, I  remember,  was  that  of  seeing  my  name  in 
print  for  the  first  time  upon  the  programmes  distrib- 
uted in  the  hall."  At  all  the  school  exhibitions  he 
attended  from  that  day  forward  his  part  was  a  promi- 
nent one ;  and  while  at  the  Latin  School,  where  there 
was  much  excellent  speaking  under  Dr.  Gardner's 
direction,  he  represented  his  class  regularly  on  the 
public  Saturdays.  Though  sometimes  selecting  dra- 
matic poems  like  "Marmion,"  his  preference  was  for 
prose  extracts  from  Webster,  Clay,  Wirt,  Corwin, 
and  some  of  the  Irish  statesmen,  which  he  memorized 
extensively.  "A  handsome  face  and  figure,  with 
rosy  cheeks,  typical  of  health,"  says  one  who  remem- 
bers him,  "  set  off  his  oratory,  which  was  impressively 
earnest  and  was  aided  by  a  flexible  and  melodious 
voice  and  appropriate  gestures.  He  threw  himself 
into  whatever  he  had  to  deliver."  The  richness  of 
his  musical  delivery  as  a  school-boy  is  thus  recalled 
by  one  who  heard  him  recite  Wirt's  description  of 
the  Blennerhassett  island  at  a  Latin  school  exhibi- 
tion. Capable  himself  of  strong  feeling,  and  deeply 
stirred  in  the  soul  by  eloquent  passages,  the  incessant 
search  which  he  used  to  make  for  them,  through 
prose  and  poetry,  from  early  youth  to  manhood,  did 


BIOGRAPHY,  217 

much  to  widen  his  range  of  thought  and  confirm  his 
mastery  of  English  expression. 

At  the  age  of  fourteen,  moreover,  our  author 
in  a  marked  instance  showed  himself  strongly 
capable  of  continuous  mental  labor  during  the  hours 
which  most  school-boys  assign  to  play  and  sport. 
While  his  father  was  Clerk  of  the  Massachusetts 
House  in  1853  the  legislature  made  an  appropriation 
for  copying  out  some  of  the  old  journals  of  the  last 
century  for  better  preservation.  One  of  these  jour- 
nals —  that  for  1784  —  William  Schouler  assigned 
experimentally  to  his  eldest  son,  w^ho,  after  a  few 
boyish  lapses,  buckled  himself  down  to  the  task  and 
finished  it  in  the  course  of  a  few  months ;  aiding  his 
work,  as  he  was  wont  to  do  in  later  years,  by  closely 
estimating  the  daily  progress  needful  to  reach  the 
goal  by  a  given  time,  and  then  keeping  well  up  to 
the  estimate.  A  large  folio  volume  of  several  hun- 
dred manuscript  pages,  substantially  bound,  and 
written  in  a  clear  school-boy  hand  with  a  steel  pen, 
may  still  be  seen  at  the  State  Library  of  Massachu- 
setts as  a  monument  of  one's  manual  toil  out  of 
school  hours,  at  the  age  of  fourteen.  For  this 
achievement  his  father  praised  him  as  possessing 
already  "  a  busy  purpose,  a  desire  to  succeed,  and  an 
industrial  habit." 

James's  musical  taste  and  talent  progressed  in 
these  school  years.  He  would  improvise,  would  play 
on  the  piano  whatever  he  heard  elsewhere,  catching  a 
melody  quickly,  and  applying  chords  with  an  almost 
intuitive  perception  of  thorough  bass.  At  the  age 
of  eleven  he  began  taking  piano  lessons,  with  an 
ultimate  reference  to  the  organ;  and  his  favorite 
teacher  was  a  Mr.  Leavens,  the  organist  at  St.  Paul's 
Church,  Boston,  and  a  man  of  consummate  taste  in 


218  BIOGRAPHY, 

all  that  pertained  to  church  music.  The  two  grew 
greatly  attached  to  one  another,  though  in  age  so 
unequal,  and  formed  a  friendship  which  lasted  for 
many  years.  When  the  hour's  instruction  was  over, 
the  teacher  would  himself  play  from  the  oratorios,  or 
improvise,  compare  tunes,  and  discourse  with  his 
pupil,  until  the  clock  showed  that  he  must  hasten  out- 
of-doors  for  some  other  engagement;  and  thus  did 
the  boy  gain  far  more  in  breadth  of  musical  culture 
than  the  mere  lesson  imparted.  He  exploited  all 
new  collections  of  sacred  music,  searching  every  book 
of  church  tunes  he  could  find,  and  buying  a  number 
for  himself;  and  before  he  entered  college  he  had 
written  out  with  his  own  hand  a  choice  collection  of 
a  hundred  tunes,  some  of  which  were  of  his  own 
arrangement.  This  manuscript  book,  still  extant, 
he  often  used  while  conducting  a  choir. 

That  interest  in  church  and  Sunday-school  which 
had  been  inculcated  while  at  Lowell  was  projected 
into  his  whole  subsequent  life.  A  struggling  Epis- 
copal church  at  East  Boston,  which  was  founded  by 
Rev.  Nathaniel  G.  Allen,  who  years  later  married 
our  author's  elder  sister,  appealed  strongly  to  his 
sympathies.  The  parish  record  left  by  Mr.  Allen 
records  "Master  James  Schouler"  among  the  bene- 
factors, in  raising  thirty-five  dollars  for  the  increase  of 
the  Sunday-school  library;  a  task  of  his  own  concep- 
tion, Avhich  involved  a  visit  to  Lowell,  where,  under 
the  kindly  patronage  of  his  old  pastor.  Dr.  Edson,  he 
made  a  house-to-house  canvass  for  the  money,  with 
two  other  boys  as  a  local  committee.  He  chose  the 
new  books,  bought  them  with  the  money  raised, 
numbered  and  catalogued  them.  Perhaps,  however, 
a  more  striking  instance  of  his  youthful  zeal  was 
shown  at  the  same  church  under  Mr.  Allen's  sue- 


BIOGRAPHY.  219 

cessor.  A  young  woman  who  had  served  as  organist 
married  and  moved  away;  and  James,  who  by  this 
time  had  presided  occasionally  at  the  instrument,  was 
urged  to  take  her  place.  He  consented  for  the 
rector's  temporary  convenience,  but  at  once  found 
himself  with  the  entire  musical  direction  devolved 
upon  him,  and  found  no  exemption  until  the  family 
removed  from  East  Boston  a  year  later.  "I  am 
sometimes  amazed,"  writes  our  author,  "when  1 
recall  the  perfect  confidence  with  which,  a  boy  of 
fourteen,  I  handled  that  little  organ  and  drilled 
weekly  a  choir  of  half  a  dozen  adults,  selecting  all 
the  Sunday  music  without  consultation.  At  our 
first  rehearsal  a  man  about  four  times  my  age  under- 
took to  control  the  choice  of  tunes,  and  finding  me 
unyielding,  left  the  room ;  after  which  no  more  loyal 
or  harmonious  a  set  of  men  and  women  ever  stood  up 
to  sing  before  a  congregation,  so  long  as  I  remained 
at  my  post."  All  who  thus  aided  the  music,  and 
our  young  organist  included,  did  so  from  good-will 
and  without  recompense. 

The  Schoulers,  as  wo  have  said,  were  strongly 
united  as  a  household,  children  and  parents,  and 
were  affectionate  towards  one  another;  but  between 
father  and  eldest  son  there  seems  to  have  been  a 
bond  of  peculiar  tenderness.  Each  preserved  con- 
stantly the  earliest  letters  received  from  the  other,  — 
forerunners  of  a  correspondence  which  was  later  to 
reveal  much  for  mutual  sympathy  and  counsel.  The 
first  filial  letter  that  James  ever  wrote  bears  date 
December  14,  1851,  while  his  father  was  in  Washing- 
ton; and  the  latter's  reply,  three  days  later,  made 
mention  that  Senator  Seward,  at  whose  desk  he  was 
writing,  had  read  the  letter  through.     "  He  said  that 


220  BIOGRAPHY. 

it  was  written  very  well,  indeed,  and  that  I  should 
feel  very  proud  of  you,  and  he  asked  your  age,  which 
I  told  him."  While  at  Cincinnati,  in  September, 
1853,  preparing  to  remove  his  family  thither,  the 
father  next  wrote  a  long  letter  to  his  son  James, 
recalling  in  a  pathetic  strain  his  own  early  struggles 
and  the  blessing  a  good  mother  had  been  to  him,  and 
enjoining  upon  the  son  a  like  appreciation  on  his 
part,  and  the  cultivation  of  industrious  and  self- 
improving  habits ;  since  he,  too,  must  make  his  own 
way  in  life.  The  son,  responding  hurriedly  from 
school  in  recess-time,  made  laconic  answer  to  all  this 
good  advice :  "  I  have  your  letter  to  me  in  my  pocket, 
and  I  would  briefly  say  that  I  hope  I  shall  never  dis- 
grace the  name  I  bear." 

James  had  much  wished  that  the  family  journey 
to  Cincinnati  should  give  a  chance  to  see  New  York 
City  and  the  picturesque  Hudson.  This  wish  the 
father  gratified.  Their  tarry  at  the  Astor  House,  in 
the  great  metropolis,  in  March,  1854,  with  the  novel 
sight  of  horse-cars  running  from  City  Hall  opposite, 
and  a  World's  Fair  to  visit,  was  full  of  delight,  but 
a  blinding  snow-storm  made  the  steamboat  trip  to 
Albany  a  disappointment.  Arrived  at  their  new 
Ohio  home  soon  after,  the  child's  young  mind 
received  new  impressions  calculated  to  broaden  his 
conception  of  American  life:  he  learned  to  love 
hill-crowned  Cincinnati  by  the  yelloAV  river  for  the 
short  time  he  was  to  remain  connected  with  it;  but 
he  pined  much  for  New  England,  and  was  homesick 
for  old  acquaintances  left  behind. 

In  the  course  of  this  first  summer  of  1854  at  the 
west,  James's  little  sister  had  to  be  taken  to  Boston 
by  the  mother  for  medical  treatment  and  a  change  of 
scene;  he  went  in  charge  of  the  party.     Except  for 


BIOGRAPHY,  221 

this  episode,  the  boy's  whole  bent  was  now  upon  his 
studies.  Sent  for  the  first  few  months  to  a  private 
school  of  half  a  dozen  boys,  taught  by  a  Methodist 
clergyman  who  had  left  the  pulpit,  —  a  man  of  much 
talent  and  erudition,  but  as  shy  and  shambling  as 
Dominie  Sampson,  —  he  developed  at  once  a  preco- 
cious intimacy  with  his  teacher-,  and,  drawing  out 
his  own  programme  of  studies  preparatory  to  mercan- 
tile life,  which  embraced  French  and  German  but  no 
Vilassics,  he  pursued  it  in  good  earnest.  But  now 
came  up  the  parental  project  of  sending  James  to 
college,  —  a  turn  to  life  wholly  unexpected,  and  yet, 
when  fairly  realized,  most  pleasing  to  him.  It  seems 
to  have  originated  in  the  idea  of  others  that  a  youth 
so  exemplary  in  morals  would  grow  into  a  clergy- 
man ;  but  when  put  to  the  test  his  ambition  in  life 
proved  a  secular  one.  Kenyon  College  at  Gambler 
was  first  fixed  upon;  and  beginning  in  the  autumn 
at  Mr.  Brooks's  famous  school,  where  the  young 
scions  of  Cincinnati's  best  families  came  together, 
James  turned  back  to  his  classical  studies,  which  for 
more  than  two  years  had  been  laid  aside,  and  resolved 
that  this  first  year  of  genuine  college  preparation 
should  be  his  last. 

The  grammar  drill  of  the  Boston  Latin  School, 
where  rules  and  Latin  words  were  memorized,  gave 
him  an  obvious  advantage  in  attacking  Csesar,  Cicero, 
and  Virgil ;  and  Greek  grammar  and  Greek  authors 
he  also  tackled  for  the  first  time  with  assiduity;  in 
English  studies  ranking  already  with  the  foremost  in 
the  school.  Nominally  in  the  third  class  when  he 
began,  James  came  quickly  alongside  of  the  second 
and  then  the  first.  Mr.  Brooks  used  to  say  of  him 
afterwards,  that  he  accomplished  in  one  year  what 
took  most  other  boys  three  years,  which  was  literally 


222  BIOGRAPHY, 

true.  Meanwhile  Trinity  College  at  Hartford  had 
become  the  parental  choice  for  him;  and  with  the 
added  incentive  of  returning  east,  his  determination 
to  be  fitted  in  twelve  months  grew  stronger.  But 
in  the  early  summer  of  1855,  a  leading  citizen  of 
Cincinnati,  who  heard  James  declaim  at  a  school 
exhibition,  said  to  the  father :  "  Harvard  is  the  insti- 
tution for  your  boy.  Don't  fail  to  send  him  there, 
where  I  have  a  son  already."  The  parents  heeded 
this  advice,  which  involved  a  greater  advance  in 
qualifications  than  the  standard  previously  in  view; 
but,  nothing  daunted,  the  son  kept  on  through  his 
school  vacation  and  into  the  hot  summer  months, 
under  his  teacher's  special  coaching,  to  meet  the 
Harvard  requirements.  His  robust  health  nearly 
gave  way  under  this  new  and  incessant  strain ;  but 
he  persevered,  and  at  length  was  ready  to  take  the 
long  journey  to  Boston  and  present  himself  for  the 
second  Harvard  examination  which  was  to  be  held  at 
the  close  of  August,  just  before  the  commencement 
of  a  new  academic  year.  Leaving  home  and  parents 
for  the  first  prolonged  departure  of  his  life,  he  found 
at  dawn  upon  the  dressing-table  of  his  chamber  two 
parting  tokens  which  he  never  ceased  to  cherish,  —  a 
long  and  loving  letter  from  his  father,  full  of  sound 
advice;  and  a  plain  gold  ring  inscribed  "from 
mother, "  which  he  wore  upon  his  finger  for  many 
years  and  until  a  wife's  ring  displaced  it.  The  early 
omnibus  bore  him  to  the  train  j  three  days  later  he 
was  in  Cambridge  •,  and  on  Friday  the  31st  of  August, 
he  telegraphed  his  father,  "  Entered  Harvard  without 
any  conditions. '' 


BIOGRAPHY.  223 

1855-1859. 

"  Until  my  entrance  upon  college  life  at  the  age  of 
sixteen,"  writes  our  historian,  "no  life  could  have 
been  happier  or  sunnier  than  mine;  no  home  more 
helpful;  no  parents  kinder  or  more  considerate.  For 
a  boy  not  brought  up  to  luxury,  it  seemed  as  though 
every  childish  wish  had  hitherto  been  gratified.  But 
scarcely  had  I  begun  my  studies  at  Harvard  when 
the  black  clouds  began  to  gather,  which,  chasing  one 
after  another  and  discharging,  have  cost  me  many  a 
sad  and  sombre  day,  until  I  seem  to  have  regained  a 
calm  and  azure  horizon  in  mature  life,  chiefly  by 
learning  life's  deeper  philosophy,  and  gaining  patience 
to  endure  what  Euripides  calls,  in  good  classical 
Greek,  ills  unbearable  that  nevertheless  must  be 
borne." 

Colonel  Schouler  had  sunk  more  capital  in  the 
"  Boston  Atlas  "  than  he  or  his  friends  could  at  first 
comprehend.  "He  has  told  me  with  tears  in  his 
eyes,"  relates  his  son,  ''that  Webster's  7th  of  March 
speech  marked  the  turning-point  in  his  pecuniary 
fortunes."  Nor  indeed  did  that  faithful  party  organ 
long  survive  the  grand  Whig  procession,  for  it  was 
moribund  when  he  left  Boston.  He  had  as  usual 
trusted  too  much  to  the  statements  of  others,  wdien 
purchasing  an  interest  in  the  "  Cincinnati  Gazette :  " 
and  though  a  respectable  and  well  established  journal, 
he  found  it  encumbered  with  old  debts  whose  pay- 
ment absorbed  all  the  profits,  until  in  September  of  this 
year,  1855,  a  note  fell  due  which  he  could  not  meet. 


224  BIOGRAPHY. 

He  had  borrowed  of  his  father  and  brothers,  but 
others  upon  whom  he  had  relied  now  failed  him.  A 
forced  sale  of  his  shares  was  threatened ;  and  in  gloom 
and  distress  he  wrote  to  the  son  just  separated  from 
him  of  new  projects  in  life;  of  moving  east  or  still 
farther  west;  of  retiring  to  a  farm  in  disgust;  of  com- 
ing to  Massachusetts  once  more  if  only  some  news- 
paper could  be  found  for  him.  This  last  thought 
was  not  to  be  wondered  at,  for  on  a  recent  visit  to 
Boston  Colonel  Schouler  had  received  the  present  of 
a  handsome  silver  service  from  "the  old  folks  at 
home ; "  and  so  great  a  Massachusetts  leader  of  the 
Whigs  as  Edward  Everett  wrote  him  about  this  time, 
expressing  the  wish  that  he  were  back,  for  things  did 
not  go  so  well  in  home  politics  as  when  he  was  there. 
The  dishonor  of  mercantile  paper  was  a  new  and  a 
sensitive  experience  for  our  editor;  "this  terrible 
thing  of  being  in  debt,"  writes  the  father  to  his  son, 
"weighs  upon  my  mind  like  a  mill-stone."  Fortu- 
nately, however,  he  had  made  a  new  friend  in 
Cincinnati,  of  his  own  generous  sort,  though  of 
opposing  politics,  and  this  friend  now  came  forward. 
Delinquency  was  stayed,  and  things  resumed  their 
former  course. 

But  the  editors  of  the  "  Gazette "  did  not  work 
smoothly  together.  Though  nominally  the  chief  and 
held  responsible  by  the  public  for  all  that  appeared 
in  print;  William  Schouler  could  not  control  his 
financial  editor  and  co-owner;  and  when  the  latter 
inserted  a  leading  article,  purposely,  perhaps,  which 
politically  attacked  Schouler's  new  benefactor  in 
savage  terms,  the  chief  editor,  stung  to  the  quick 
by  this  semblance  of  personal  ingratitude,  tendered 
his  immediate  resignation.  A  truce  was  arranged; 
but  Colonel  Schouler,  after  a  vain  winter's  journey 


BIOGRAPHY.  225 

to  Washington  in  search  of  a  position  from  the  new 
Congress,  whose  House  was  controlled  by  the  com- 
posite elements  he  had  helped  bring  into  power, 
agreed  in  the  spring  of  1856  with  his  two  "  Gazette  " 
associates  to  buy  them  out  within  sixty  days  or  else 
sell  out  to  them  and  retire.  He  applied  to  eastern 
friends,  but  failed  to  raise  the  money;  and  accord- 
ingly he  sold  his  share  to  his  associates  and  received 
a  small  balance  in  hand  over  and  above  the  debts  he 
now  punctiliously  discharged.  He  left  the  newspaper 
by  the  middle  of  April,  1856. 

All  of  these  successive  transactions  James  at  col- 
lege followed  with  his  epistolary  counsel.  "You 
wTite,  my  dear  son,  exceedingly  well,"  wrote  the 
father  to  him;  "your  letters  display  a  great  deal  of 
matured  sense,  and  I  have  profited  much  by  the 
advice  they  contain."  His  mother,  too,  less  sanguine 
and  variable  in  temperament,  had  detailed  with 
equal  confidence  the  family  troubles,  and  with  clear 
insight  from  her  own  point  of  view  sought  his  advice. 
"I  have  often  thought,"  relates  our  author,  "while 
reflecting  since  upon  this  family  episode,  that  I 
threw  away  at  this  time  an  opportunity  in  life,  not 
then  clear  to  me,  which  might  have  led  us  on  to 
the  flood  of  fortune  and  influence.  Except  for 
money-making,  which  Americans  rarely  lose  sight  of 
as  a  consideration,  father  certainly  achieved  a  later 
career  outside  of  journalism,  and  so  possibly  have  I. 
But  had  I  chosen  to  leave  college  at  once  and 
joined  father,  heart  and  hand,  in  this  Cincinnati 
enterprise,  I  am  confident  that,  youth  though  I  was, 
we  should  have  raised  the  money  together  and  made 
that  newspaper  permanently  our  own.  We  had  good 
mental  qualities  to  combine  in  such  work,  — he  with 
his  genius  for  personal  acquaintance  and  popularity, 

15 


226  BIOGRAPHY, 

I  with  a  closer  application  to  details  and  comparison ; 
and  each  of  us  capable  of  wielding  the  pen  and  inter- 
preting events,  after  his  own  fashion.  Not  a  sugges- 
tion of  the  kind  came  to  me  then,  or  it  might  have 
fructified.*  In  fact,  I  was  rather  disposed,  at  this 
early  stage  of  life,  to  encourage  father's  increasing 
disrelish  of  the  press,  for  journalism  in  this  country 
had  not  yet  asserted  its  independence  in  enterprise, 
and  editors  were  still  too  much  the  bond-slaves  of 
politics  and  of  ambitious  statesmen.  So  I  kept  on 
at  Harvard,  economizing  as  I  might.  Father  sold  out 
his  interest  instead  of  buying  out  his  associates ;  and 
the  sagacious  financial  editor  of  the  '  Gazette  '  —  well 
known  in  after  years  as  '  Deacon  Richard  Smith, 
the  truly  good' — gained  that  full  control  of  the 
newspaper  for  which,  I  do  not  doubt,  he  had  been 
craftily  working." 

With  the  trifling  balance  received  from  the  sale  of 
his  interest  in  the  "Gazette,"  Colonel  Schouler  now 
entered  the  commission  business  in  Cincinnati,  engag- 
ing a  store,  and,  as  he  wrote  his  son,  hoping  soon  to 
be  in  the  "full  tide  of  successful  experiment."  His 
chosen  partner,  against  whom  he  was  seasonably 
warned  as  a  man  of  bad  reputation  in  Boston  business 
circles,  received  nearly  all  of  this  money,  and  went 
east  to  purchase  goods  for  the  credulous  concern ;  but 
neither  goods  nor  cash  ever  appeared,  and  the  partner 
turned  up  in  a  Massachusetts  criminal  court,  a  j^ear 
later,  under  an  indictment  for  forgery.  Colonel 
Schouler  bore  his  new  anxiety  with  more  equanimity 
than  his  earlier  one ;  and,  having  great  influence  and 
popularity  in  Cincinnati,  where  he  had  made  hosts 
of  personal  friends,  he  was  sent  to  the  first  Presidential 
convention  of  the  Republican  party  at  Philadelphia, 
which  nominated  Fremont  and  Dayton,  and  upon  his 


BIOGRAPHY,  227 

return  presented  the  resolutions  at  the  large  ratifica- 
tion meeting  which  was  held  during  June  in  Cincin- 
nati. With  renewed  enthusiasm  for  politics  he  now 
threw  himself  into  the  work  of  organizing  by  speech 
and  pen  for  the  new  national  cause  of  free  soil.  His 
friends  had  never  taken  seriously  his  newspaper  vale- 
dictory nor  his  purpose  of  mercantile  life.  He  had, 
in  fact,  been  writing  leaders  constantly  for  the 
"Gazette  "  while  waiting  for  his  goods  to  begin  busi- 
ness ;  and,  accepting  presently  an  offer  to  edit  the 
"  Ohio  State  Journal "  upon  a  salary,  he  moved  with 
his  family  to  Columbus,  and  before  August  was  ab- 
sorbed in  editorial  pursuits  once  more.  All  these 
home  changes  transpired  during  the  son's  first  year 
at  Harvard;  and  the  reverses  of  anothar  family  to 
whom  James  had  been  much  attached  deepened  his 
intimacy  thus  early  with  adversity,  and  made  him 
prematurely  a  counsellor  of  the  distressed. 

Our  author  remained  at  Cambridge,  persevering  in 
his  University  studies  and  practising  a  rigid  economy. 
"  1  cannot  divest  myself  of  this  sad  melancholy  when 
I  write  you,"  said  his  father  in  a  letter,  "but  I  do 
not  wish  it  to  make  you  sad;  you  must  keep  on  as 
you  have  begun."  Remittances  from  home,  how- 
ever, were  of  small  amount,  and  necessarily  preca- 
rious I  nor  would  he  have  been  able  to  complete  his 
college  course  at  all  but  for  the  generous  offer  of  his 
father's  eldest  brother,  who  was  a  man  of  means,  to 
make  up  any  deficiency.  James  inherited  a  Scotch 
pride  and  reticence  over  all  these  troubles,  and  such 
assistance  as  the  University  was  wont  to  render  to" 
students  visibly  in  need  would  have  been  intolerable 
to  him.  In  the  course  of  these  four  years  he  aided 
his   revenue  by  teaching  school  one  winter,  and  at 


228  BIOGRAPHY. 

other  times  by  finding  Sunday  employment  as  an 
organist.  "The  mone}^  spent  on  my  mnsic,"  as  he 
once  wrote  his  father,  *•'  was  not  thrown  away ;  for  in 
this  one  year  I  shall  make  more  than  all  my  musical 
instruction  ever  cost  you."  And  thus  by  hook  or 
crook  he  made  his  way  through  college,  scrupulous 
of  incurring  debt,  keeping  his  frugality  out  of  sight, 
and  sharing  fairly  in  those  general  calls  upon  the 
purse  which  social  companionship  made  necessary. 

Schouler's  classmates  agree  that  during  the  first 
few  months  at  college  he  was  held  somewhat  in  con- 
tempt, and  that  his  rise  in  the  class,  though  constant, 
was  quite  gradual,  and  due  to  a  better  estimate  on 
acquaintance  of  his  genuine  talent  and  goodness  of 
heart.  During  the  first  term  of  his  Freshman  year 
he  lived  at  quite  a  distance  from  the  college  buildings 
in  a  private  family.  He  was  one  of  the  youngest 
men  in  his  class ;  among  classmates  there  was  no  one 
who  knew  him  intimately  already,  though  several 
had  met  him  at  other  schools ;  and  while  he  did  not 
repel  acquaintance,  he  seemed  shy  and  sought  none. 
Besides  being  oppressed  in  fact  with  domestic  troubles, 
he  had  been  brought  up  emphatically  as  a  home  boy, 
and  was  thoroughly  home -sick  and  far  away  from 
those  he  loved.  All  this  made  him  sensitive  and 
shrinking  J  and  he  had  furthermore  the  speedy  con- 
sciousness that  he  was  misunderstood.  The  rumor 
spread  that  he  was  "green."  Without  tact  enough 
to  turn  the  laugh  upon  fellows  whom  he  saw  trying 
their  tricks,  he  drew  rather  into  his  shell;  and 
stories  utterly  unfounded  were  told  of  him,  which  he 
had  no  chance  to  refute  until  the  Junior  "mock- 
parts  "  disclosed  them.  Fortunately  for  him  it  soon 
happened  that  a  table  mate  began  to  drop  in  upon 
him  in  the   aftertioons  to  study  the   Greek  lesson; 


BIOGRAPHY.  229 

their  cordial  intercourse  grew,  and  they  soon  con- 
cluded to  take  a  room  together  in  the  college  build- 
ings at  the  beginning  of  the  new  term. 

The  friendship  of  these  college  chums,  admirably 
fitted  for  one  another,  was  mutually  helpful  through 
their  University  course,  and  has  since  ripened  into 
the  intimacy  of  a  lifetime.  One  of  the  most  sociable 
of  men,  fond  of  class  politics  and  class  societies,  and 
possessed  thus  early  of  a  marked  savoir  faire  among 
callers  and  companions  of  all  conditions,  John  H. 
Ricketson  bore  well  the  hospitalities  of  this  conjugal 
bachelorhood  in  the  college  yard,  which  after  all 
affords  the  only  college  life  worth  living.  Classmates 
noAV  came  in  upon  them  for  study  or  fun,  and  Schouler 
found  himself  in  his  better  element,  and  better  under- 
stood. To  the  Sophomore  " Institute,"  he  was  elected 
without  opposition ;  he  joined  one  of  the  boat  clubs, 
and  was  chosen  its  secretary;  in  his  junior  year  he 
made  one  of  a  small  and  congenial  club  table,  was 
elected  to  the  Natural  History  Society,  and  was 
enrolled  as  an  original  member  and  first  secretary  of 
the  Harvard  Glee  Club.  The  Harvard  class  of  1859 
adopted  a  singular  course  in  repudiating  all  Greek- 
letter  societies,  one  effect  of  which  was  to  throw  the 
"Hasty  Pudding"  somewhat  out  of  balance  in  its 
membership ;  and  Schouler  took  his  exclusion  in  the 
senior  year  from  that  famous  society  with  many  class- 
mates of  talent  and  moderate  living;  but  intending 
to  keep  out  of  the  new  "O.  K."  as  well,  which  had 
started  in  rivalry,  he  found  himself  chosen  sponta- 
neously and  by  a  unanimous  vote.  All  these  and 
other  class  distinctions  to  be  presently  noticed  came 
to  him  entirely  unsought. 

It  was  impossible  that  James  should  prove,  as  his 
fond   Cincinnati    teacher    had    predicted,    the    first 


230  BIOGRAPHY. 

scholar  in  his  class.  That  impetuous  energy  which 
carried  him  so  rapidly  to  college  and  the  east 
exhausted  itself  with  the  attainment  of  its  immediate 
end;  and  he  found  himself  deficient  in  training 
besides,  as  compared  with  others  of  the  class  whose 
preparation  had  been  more  solid  and  systematic. 
His  education  had,  in  fact,  been  hasty,  desultory, 
divided  up  among  various  schools  and  instructors, 
and  only  his  own  constancy  had  unified  the  results. 
From  the  Boston  Latin  School  he  met  at  Cambridge 
the  most  advanced  portion  of  his  former  class  joined 
to  an  earlier  one;  while  his  average  schoolmates  of 
1852  were  among  the  next  year's  Freshmen.  But 
his  talents  and  industry  assured  him  of  at  least  a 
respectable  stand.  In  a  college  class  of  about  one 
hundred,  he  stood  just  within  the  line  of  the  first 
quarter ;  high  enough  in  rank  to  secure  a  part  at  the 
Senior  May  exhibition  and  on  Commencement  Day. 
In  Harvard  University,  as  at  school,  an  evenness  of 
development  marked  his  mental  progress.  In  themes 
and  forensics  strong  power  of  expression  rather  than 
of  thought  seemed  the  characteristic,  though  his  marks 
were  high;  and  at  an  ''Institute"  debate  of  his 
Sophomore  year,  and  the  first  in  which  he  ever  par- 
ticipated, he  held  his  ground  well  against  two  expe- 
rienced opponents,  though  contending  single-handed 
in  his  colleague's  absence.  He  read  a  lecture  before 
the  same  society  on  "Addison  and  Steele,"  which 
showed  culture,  and  was  impressively  delivered.  But 
he  neither  won  nor  sought  any  of  the  English  com- 
position prizes.  To  declamation  he  addressed  himself 
instead,  knowing  his  surer  strength,  and  won,  as  we 
have  mentioned,  a  lower  and  then  a  higher  prize.  It 
was  in  the  Junior  year  that  his  chum  and  he  bore  off 
the  two  first  prizes. 


BIOGRAPHY.  231 

^  An  incident  is  recalled  at  one  of  the  college  rooms 
about  the  beginning  of  Schouler's  Sophomore  year, 
when  an  itinerant  phrenologist  came  in.  A  number 
of  the  class  who  were  present,  and  reckoned  among 
the  ablest,  came  forward  to  get  their  bumps  examined; 
and  the  comments  of  the  examiner,  shrewd  and 
humorous,  were  more  or  less  complimentary.  At 
length  Schouler,  who  was  in  the  modest  background, 
came  forward  in  his  turn;  when,  to  the  surprise  of 
his  fellows,  the  phrenologist  praised  his  head  above 
all  the  others,  predicting  great  things  of  him. 
"This  was  not  much  relished  by  the  others,''  says 
our  informant,  "  for  Schouler,  though  rising  in  their 
esteem,  was  even  then  reckoned  as  of  no  great  mental 
calibre;  and  they  left  him  to  pay  the  Spurzheim 
traveller  out  of  his  own  pocket.  But  it  seemed  as  if 
from  that  day  the  youth  gained  in  self-assertion 
among  his'  classmates,  —  a  mental  gift  in  which  he 
seemed  always  rather  deficient.  He  could  arouse 
and  even  electrify  upon  the  platform  or  where  he  had 
something  special  to  deliver  j  but  in  the  general  witti- 
cisms and  conversation  of  classmates  he  showed  no 
special  exuberance.'' 

This  quiet  constraint  among  his  fellows,  where 
brilliant  talk  went  on,  was  greatly  due  to  the  gentle 
home  influences  which  had  moulded  his  character-, 
and  moreover  to  an  inbred  reluctance  to  "show  off,'' 
as  he  called  it,  or  force  his  talents  upon  the  notice  of 
male  company.  But  for  the  infirmity  of  his  later 
life  this  peculiarity  would  have  worn  off.  For  at 
the  very  time  when  this  modest  reticence  drew  the 
comment  of  classmates,  James  was  the  life  of  his 
home  circle,  and  wherever  else  he  felt  intimate 
enough  to  make  spontaneous  mirth.  His  nicknames, 
his  sport  over  college  incidents  which  had  impressed 


232  BIOGRAPHY. 

his  sense  of  humor,  his  rollicking  mimicry  and  mock 
theatrical  rant,  all  mingled  with  his  "ready  musical 
accompaniment,  cheered  and  delighted  such  com- 
pany by  the  hour  together.  His  mother  and  sisters 
would  recount  the  merry  pranks  of  his  winter  vaca- 
tion at  home,  when  his  spirits  were  highest,  and 
would  hum  the  lively  tunes  which  he  rattled  off  on  the 
piano ;  and  so  was  it  with  dear  friends  among  whom 
he  tarried  in  the  summer.  Both  in  correspondence 
and  personal  intercourse,  it  seemed  his  mission  at 
this  stage  of  youth  to  cheer  up  those  whose  lives 
were  arched  with  sorrow,  imparting  his  own  buoyancy 
y  and  hopefulness.  In  all  this  young  Schouler  shone 
best  in  mixed  company.  Women  seemed  to  arouse 
him  to  the  best  play  of  his  intellect  j  and  so  quickly 
attractive  Avas  he  to  the  fair  sex  that  he  entered  the 
best  society  without  an  effort.  Before  he  had  finished 
his  Sophomore  year  he  was  in  the  centre  of  a  charm- 
ing Cambridge  set  of  young  men  and  women,  and 
among  the  foremost  of  his  class  in  demand  there  at 
dances  and  evening  parties.  Though  never  taught  a 
dancing  lesson  in  his  life,  he  moved  with  natural 
grace  and  rhythm  through  the  quadrilles  and  country 
dances  that  then  made  the  staple  of  our  social  func- 
tions. With  a  classmate,  too,  of  congenial  tastes  and 
temperament,  he  was  a  most  entertaining  companion, 
for  grave  or  gay  converse,  when  they  were  off  by 
themselves. 

But  if  taciturn  and  disposed  to  listen  rather  than 
talk,  where  college  men  were  numerous,  if  unable  to 
make  a  rattling,  off-hand  speech,  or  extemporize  a 
good  story,  James  soon  showed  a  striking  felicity 
with  the  pen  in  college  diversions.  At  one  of  the 
earlier  "  Institute  "  meetings  he  contributed  an  effu- 
sion to  the  paper  of  one  of  the  most  popular  editors,* 


BIOGRAPHY.  233 

which  was  so  well  received  that  the  editor  got  him  to 
write  again,  and  then  proposed  and  carried  him  in  as 
a  personal  successor  for  the  new  term.  The  choice 
was  vindicated;  and  Schouler  as  an  "Institute" 
editor,  particularly  in  a  final  paper  which  was  mostly 
of  his  own  composition,  brought  a  tumult  of  applause 
and  laughter.  A  college  paper  works  up  mirthful 
allusions  to  lessons,  teachers,  and  the  college  social 
life,  weaving  together  light  analogies,  puns,  and  word- 
play, all  irradiated  by  the  writer's  fancy  and  imagina- 
tion, whether  in  prose  or  poetry.  In  such  literary 
productions,  our  author  attained  marked  excellence 
at  college,  as  did  also  a  classmate  and  friend,  who 
"became  class  poet,*  nor  was  the  racy  flight  of  either 
soiled  by  a  gross  or  indecent  thought.  Each  in  turn, 
by  such  a  start,  gained  wider  college  celebrity,  as  an 
editor  of  the  "  Harvard  Magazine,  '*  —  a  periodical  in 
whose  pages  appeared,  along  with  such  'persiflage., 
some  more  serious  of  their  literary  productions. 
Schouler's  lighter  efforts  were  invoked  for  another 
special  paper  before  the  class  society  in  his  Senior 
year;  and  when  the  class  met  socially,  as  mature 
men,  on  the  silver  anniversary  of  "1859,"  Schouler 
was  once  more  singled  out  for  editor.  In  such  liter- 
ary work,  which  took  many  an  hour  from  his  college 
recreation,  and  doubtless  from  his  studies  besides,  our 
author  (aside  from  his  gift  of  oratory)  gained  doubt- 
less his  cliief  college  eminence,  and  was  really  a  marked 
man  in  the  class  by  the  time  he  graduated. 

James  took  no  great  interest  in  athletic  sports,  nor 
did  he  ever  cherish  an  athletic  ambition.  In  all 
recreation,  physical  or  mental,  he  disKked  antago- 
nism, unless,  at  all  events,  many  shared  the  burden  of 
it.  He  would  rarely  enter  a  gymnasium;  for  gym- 
nastic exercise,  unless  carefully  superintended,  leads 


234  BIOGRAPHY. 

on  to  feats  of  daring  which  to  the  average  boy  means 
injury.  But  without  such  special  training  our  author 
showed  sound  and  robust  health,  and  a  capacity  for 
mental  and  physical  endurance,  strengthened  by 
temperate  habits.  He  pulled  a  good  oar,  and 
belonged  to  the  picked  crew  of  his  boat  club  while 
they  made  use  of  an  old-fashioned  barge ;  but  when  a 
light  shell  and  undress  succeeded  he  dropped  out. 
At  Fresh  Pond  he  regularly  rowed  as  one  of  a  merry 
young  party  of  both  sexes  styled  the  "Arrow  Club." 
Long  walks,  at  college  and  in  earlier  and  later  life, 
have  furnished  his  habitual  exercise;  and  these  he 
could  enjoy  either  with  company  or  alone.  Con- 
venience, not  to  add  economy,  initiated  such  exertion 
in  his  Freshman  year;  for  steam  connection  with 
Boston  had  just  been  discontinued  when  he  entered 
college,  nor  until  the  following  April  was  the  new 
street  railway  completed  and  equipped  with  horse- 
cars.  Many  a  Saturday  did  he  tramp  over  the  bridge 
into  the  great  city,  through  Boston  and  back  again. 
Passing  one  Sunday  in  the  winter  with  friends  in 
the  suburbs,  when,  after  a  violent  snow-storm  the 
skies  cleared  at  noon,  leaving  the  snow  piled  high, 
he  walked  to  Boston  to  take  the  Sunday  evening 
omnibus  to  Cambridge  from  Brattle  Street;  and,  find- 
ing that  it  would  not  run,  he  pursued  his  solitary 
march  on  foot,  plunging  through  immense  drifts  at 
Cambridgeport,  just  beyond  the  bridge,  until  at 
Cambridge  he  reached  his  room.  Again,  on  a  bitter 
cold  Monday  in  January,  1859,  when  the  thermometer 
ranged  far  below  zero,  he  rose  at  four  in  the  morning 
and  walked  from  Boston  to  Cambridge  in  the  dim 
dawn,  reaching  the  college  yard  just  as  the  first  bell 
rang  for  prayers,  which  few  othei^s  attended;  and 
about  sunset  of  the  same  day,  after  the  usual  college 


BIOGRAPHY.  235 

routine,  he  walked  back  to  Boston  for  an  evening 
engagement.  For,  punctilious,  at  this  youthful  age, 
in  all  matters  of  duty  or  pleasure,  he  did  not  yield 
readily  to  external  obstacles. 

Among  his  greatest  pleasures  in  Boston  were 
theatres,  concerts,  and  operas,  to  which  his  father's 
newspaper  connections  afforded  him  many  a  free 
admission.  The  zest  for  such  entertainments  has 
lasted  through  his  life  without  leading  him  to  dissi- 
pation. The  Sunday  evening  rehearsals  of  the  Handel 
and  Haydn  Society  he  enjoyed  quite  regularly  under 
a  like  permit,  often  walking  in  and  out  from 
Cambridge  to  attend  them.  Though  in  musical 
demand  at  Cambridge  among  the  chapel  and  glee- 
club  choristers  as  a  second  tenor,  he  never  made 
much  pretence  to  vocal  skill ;  but  his  thirst  for  good 
music  was  intense,  and  with  all  the  great  oratorios, 
while  they  were  practised,  he  became  quite  familiar 
as  a  listener.  Most  of  his  spare  pocket-money  in 
these  college  days,  such  as  came  from  prizes  or 
presents,  he  would  devote  to  classical  works  of  music 
and  standard  authors ;  and  he  formed  a  library  which 
seemed  to  grow,  he  hardly  knew  how. 

Cultivating  always  methodical  habits,  James,  upon 
leaving  home  and  entering  college,  opened  a  private 
cash  account  of  receipts  and  expenditures,  which  he 
has  never  since  discontinued;  casting  up  periodically 
what  he  had  spent  for  various  objects,  and  estimating 
such  appropriations  as  might  be  needful  for  the 
coming  year.  But  not  quite  so  minute  as  some  great 
men  have  been,  he  has  found  it  convenient  to  embrace 
various  small  outlays  under  some  specific  head,  and 
then  carry  out  the  total.  "  Sundries  "  he  named  such 
recurring  items  in  his  Freshman  accounts. 


236  BIOGRAPHY. 

James,  also,  at  his  father's  request,  opened  a 
journal  on  the  first  of  January,  1856;  and  this  he 
continued  to  keep,  not  only  through  his  college 
career,  but  in  one  form  or  another,  down  to  the 
spring  of  1868,  when  the  pressure  of  manhood's  cares 
made  it  too  irksome  for  continuance.  He  used  plain 
blank-books  for  this  purpose,  writing  almost  daily, 
until  in  1862  he  volunteered  as  a  soldier  and  went 
into  camp.  During  his  military  service,  a  large 
pocket-book,  which  he  carried  about  in  the  vest, 
sufficed  for  diary  and  cash  account  together;  and 
finally  he  made  use  of  an  annual  printed  calendar, 
which  he  would  post  about  once  a  week  in  very  brief 
phrase.  Of  his  later  substitute  for  diaries  we  shall 
speak  hereafter.  ''  For  a  busy  man,"  says  our  author 
in  reviewing  his  personal  experience,  "all  such  jour- 
nalizing involves  a  great  waste  of  time,  and  I  do  not 
strongly  recommend  it,  unless  some  incentive  stronger 
than  the  mere  chronicle  of  commonplace  life  or  of 
commonplace  thoughts  and  emotions  presents  itself. 
If  you  are  engaged  upon  some  remarkable  exploit  or 
expedition,  whose  record  will  prove  of  historical 
value,  keeping  a  faithful  diary  may  be  of  much  con- 
sequence ;  but  otherwise  it  seems  to  me  rather  out  of 
range  with  the  rush  and  variety  of  modern  life,  and 
suits  better  the  tranquil  ways  of  the  past  and  that 
remoteness  into  which  newspapers  and  the  telegraph 
seldom  penetrate.  To  itemize  from  day  to  day  in  a 
line  or  a  phrase  is  of  very  little  use,  whether  for  style 
or  the  habit  of  accuracy,  or  the  delight  of  fertile 
reminiscence.  Indeed,  a  well-kept  cash  account  may 
serve  your  turn  quite  as  well,  besides  proving  useful 
in  other  ways.  Self-examination  at  the  close  of  each 
day,  mental  reflection,  and  the  reporting  habit,  all 
find  scope  in  such  a  task,  if  you  find  time  enough  to 


BIOGRAPHY,  237 

make  the  Journal  in  literary  excellence  what  it  should 
be;  but  in  that  '  if  '  consists  the  difficulty.  Literary 
excellence  of  expression  seems  better  gained  by  writ- 
ing for  the  press ;  and  furthermore,  by  laying  your- 
self out  in  your  private  correspondence  and  aiming, 
with  the  time  thus  gained,  to  describe  well  your 
thoughts  and  feelings,  together  mth  wdiat  you  have 
seen,  in  letters  to  your  intimate  friends.  If  you  can 
get  these  letters  back  to  read  in  after  life,  or  even 
retain  copies  of  them  when  sending  them  off,  you 
have,  with  letters  received  in  return,  a  better  means 
for  reproducing  your  past  life  than  in  any  diary  which 
one  honestly  means  to  remain  private."  Schouler's 
college  journal,  we  may  mention  in  passing,  struck 
the  medium  between  dry  chronicle  and  an  outpour- 
ing of  the  inner  heart.  But  he  has  not  derived 
the  pleasure  in  reading  over  his  own  production 
that  he  had  predicted  at  the  outset;  and  lest  some 
one  else  might  peruse  its  pages  hereafter  he  has 
destroyed  it. 

James's  Senior  year  at  Harvard  was  full  of  devel- 
opment and  activity.  As  one  of  the  "Harvard 
Magazine  "  editors,  and  the  most  prominent  of  them, 
he  took  special  burdens  in  its  business  management, 
besides  composing  much  and  preparing  specially  the 
number  which  belonged  to  a  colleague  who  was 
absent,  teaching  school.  By  this  time  he  was  gaining 
fame  in  the  class  for  serious  as  well  as  witt}^  produc- 
tions. His  article  on  the  origin  of  "Class  Day,"  in 
the  October,  1858,  number,  drew  academic  notice  at 
a  time  when  the  faculty  had  talked  of  abolishing  the 
institution;  and  in  tracing  out  its  ancient  establish- 
ment, he  laboriously  searched  old  newspapers  and 
old  college  pamphlets  among  the  libraries  of  the 
Athenaeum  and  Historical  Society  in  Boston;  so  that 


238  BIOGRAPHY. 

we  may  call  this  paper  his  first  real  essay  at  historical 
exploration.  Articles  grave  and  gay  appeared  from 
his  pen  in  the  January,  1859,  number,  besides  what 
he  contributed  to  the  "  Editors'  Table ;  "  and  in  "  Our 
Day  Dreams,"  he  pleaded  earnestly  for  buoyancy  and 
enthusiasm  rather  than  a  cynical  spirit  when  entering 
upon  the  battle  of  life.  From  June,  1858,  he  had 
been  an  organist  and  choir  conductor  each  Sunday,  — 
first,  at  Dedham,  and  then  at  the  Church  of  the  Advent, 
Boston,  during  a  transition  period  of  the  latter  parish, 
and  while  its  rectorship  was  vacant.  Warmly  attached 
to  the  Dedham  church  and  its  pastor,  he  was  con- 
firmed there,  and  joined  the  full  Episcopal  com- 
munion in  the  first  month  of  1859.  With  all  these 
distractions  from  the  curriculum,  he  kept  up  well  in 
his  studies,  and  gained  in  college  rank.  At  the  May 
•exhibition  preceding  graduation,  his  part  attracted 
unusual  applause  as  a  brilliant  piece  of  composition 
eloquently  spoken;  "Douglas  Jerrold"  was  his 
chosen  subject,  which  he  had  worked  up  into  a 
character  sketch  illustrating  a  warm  disposition 
soured  by  long,  unappreciated  labor. 

In  the  mean  time,  on  March  14,  1859,  class  elec- 
tion day  had  been  reached,  —  that  anxious  goal  of 
college  politics.  Some  wished  Schouler  for  class 
orator,  —  a  distinction  which  had  been  his  own  secret 
desire ;  but  his  star  had  risen  too  slowly  and  too  late. 
Other  circumstances  were  against  him;  and  in  a 
bitter  party  contest  over  class  favors,  from  which  he 
had  kept  aloof,  his  name  was  not  presented  as  a 
candidate.  But  he  received  scattering  votes  for 
almost  every  class  office,  as  a  spontaneous" recognition 
of  merit.  "You  are  honored  by  the  whole  class,'' 
said  one  of  the  class  leaders  after  the  meeting,  "and 
you  have  not  an  enemy  among  them  j  another  office 


BIOGRAPHY,  239 

would  have  been  given  to  you  if  you  had  signified 
your  wish  to  receive  it." 

Ever  since  May,  1858,  his  father's  family  had  been 
back  in  Boston.  William  Schouler  for  nearly  two 
years  edited  his  Columbus  paper,  and  performed 
effective  work  in  organizing  the  political  elements 
which  firmly  seated  Republicanism  in  Ohio.  During 
his  five  years'  residence  in  that  State  he  gained  the 
personal  friendship  and  confidence  of  such  public 
leaders  as  Judge  McLean,  Thomas  Corwin,  and  the 
man  of  massive  statesmanship.  Governor  Salmon 
P.  Chase.  Abraham  Lincoln  once  toiled  up  the 
"  Gazette  "  staircase,  when  in  Cincinnati,  to  have  a 
political  chat  with  him ;  and  at  Columbus,  Howells, 
the  famous  fiction-writer  of  the  future,  set  types  for 
him.  But  Schouler  was  heartsick  for  Massachusetts, 
and  for  various  friends  in  the  old  Bay  State,  now 
rising  in  influence,  who  urged  him  to  return.  A 
newspaper  offer  came  at  length  from  Boston ;  where- 
upon Governor  Chase,  reluctant  to  lose  him,  appointed 
him  Adjutant-General  of  Ohio;  hoping  that  the  legis- 
lature would  at  once  increase  the  trifling  salary,  and 
put  the  Ohio  militia  upon  an  organized  footing. 
That  bill  failed  of  passage ;  and  Schouler  would  defer 
acceptance  of  his  Boston  offer  no  longer.  A  public 
dinner  was  given  him  at  the  State  capital  as  a  testi- 
monial on  his  departure;  and  Ohio  long  and  affec- 
tionately cherished  his  name  and  political  services. 
Schouler's  welcome  back  to  Boston  and  to  the  Boston 
editorial  guild  was  no  less  hearty ;  and  under  his  san- 
guine direction  the  reorganized  "Bee"  —  or  "Atlas 
and  Bee,"  as  he  chose  to  have  it  styled  —  started 
into  circulation  with  some  of  those  strong  leaders 
of  other  days.     But  the  venture  was  ill-advised,  and 


240  BIOGRAPHY, 

with  no  solid  capital  behind  it  served  merely  for 
temporary  aid  in  establishing  a  new  political  party. 
Handicapped  with  indigence  and  a  precarious  salary, 
the  editor  of  this  superfluous  Boston  press  did,  never- 
theless, the  expected  work  in  fusing  some  of  the 
old  Whig  element  of  Massachusetts  into  this  new 
Republican  coalition  whose  national  triumph  was 
approaching. 

When  the  son's  organ  engagement  at  the  Church 
of  the  Advent  ended  in  April,  1859,  the  kind  Dr. 
Shattuck,  who  was  senior  warden,  offered  to  the 
young  collegian  a  place  among  the  instructors  of  St. 
Paul's  School,  at  Concord,  New  Hampshire,  —  that 
famous  institution  for  boys  which  his  benevolence 
was  then  founding.  The  tender  was  wholly  unex- 
pected; and  as  no  credentials  were  asked,  he  had 
probably  looked  up  the  student's  college  record  for 
himself.  After  a  visit  to  the  school,  whose  principal. 
Rev.  Henry  A.  Coit,  received  him  most  cordially, 
James  concluded  an  arrangement  to  take  effect  just 
after  Class  Day ;  and  with  this  suddenly  disclosed  field 
of  work  came  a  new  outlook  upon  active  life.  A 
vacancy  in  the  chair  of  English  literature  happened  to 
exist  at  Trinity  College ;  and  with  a  new  hope  of  in- 
fluence not  unfounded  for  obtaining  it,  Schouler  de- 
termined to  devote  whatever  spare  time  his  next  year's 
work  might  afford,  to  post-graduate  study  in  the  ap- 
propriate branches.  Early  in  his  Junior  year  he  had 
made  up  his  mind  to  be  a  lawyer,  and  his  father, 
when  consulted,  had  approved  the  idea;  but  now, 
exchanging  this  plan  for  the  other,  he  presented  the 
set  of  Blackstone  already  on  his  book-shelves  to  a 
classmate  who  was  sure  to  need  it.  Few  Harvard 
graduates  begin  their  serious  career  in  life  on  the 
Senior  leave-taking  day,    so  as  to  make  graduation 


BIOGRAPHY.  241 

and  Commencement  Day  an  episode  to  toil.  But 
such  was  our  author's  experience;  and  among  the 
distractions  of  a  tutor  at  Concord  he  prepared  his 
Commencement  part  and  returned  to  Cambridge  to 
rejoin  his  class  for  the  final  exercises  of  July  20.  The 
subject  of  his  Commencement  disquisition  selected 
by  himself  Avas  "Doctor  Thomas  Arnold,"  which, 
inspired  by  "Tom  Brown's  School  Days,"  he  treated, 
after  much  the  same  fashion  as  his  Senior  exhibition 
part,  in  characterizing  the  life-work  of  that  Christian 
teacher  at  Rugby.  Something  in  the  speaker's 
manner  and  matter  seems  to  have  made  an  impres- 
sion; for  a  Boston  evening  paper  mentioned  that 
Governor  Banks  pronounced  this  the  best  piece  in  a 
programme  of  thirty  or  more  parts.  The  class  of 
1859  numbers  many  men  illustrious  in  the  various 
walks  of  life,  though  others  of  the  highest  promise 
on  Commencement  Day  lost  early  their  lives  in  the 
course  of  the  Civil  War. 

One  little  incident  of  this  graduation  may  be  here 
related  for  the  first  time.  After  the  degrees  had  been 
announced,  the  class  marshals  went  upon  the  stage 
to  receive  the  baccalaureate  sheep-skins,  adorned 
with  pink  ribbon,  and  distribute  them  among  the 
graduating  candidates.  Schouler's  degree  was  not 
among  them,  which  caused  one  or  two  expressions 
of  concern;  but  he  kept  silence,  mistrusting  the 
cause,  and  found,  on  arriving  home,  that  his  father, 
who  had  undertaken  to  attend  to  his  term-bill,  had 
been  unable  to  raise  the  money.  "  Father's  mortifica- 
tion, "  says  our  author,  "  must  have  been  greater  than 
my  own;  for  mother  told  me  afterwards,  that  he  sat 
under  the  elms  on  Boston  Common,  that  evening,  and 
shed  silent  tears  over  the  want  that  had  caused 
the  son  he  loved  a  moment's  ignominy."    The  money 

16 


242  BIOGRAPHY. 

was  procured  next  day,  the  term-bill  paid,  and  the 
parchment  handed  over;  and  James  returned  to 
Concord,  there  to  continue  work  until  the  vacation 
of  St.  Paul's  School  came  in  October. 


VI. 

1860-1866. 

James  Schouler  was  twenty  years  of  age  when 
he  graduated  from  college;  a  young  man  marked 
among  his  classmates  at  Harvard  for  the  happy  blend- 
ing of  talent,  diligence,  and  sobriety,  —  one  who 
personally  looked  forward  and  urged  others  to  look 
forward  to  active  life  with  high  aims  and  a  high  sense 
of  honor.  He  appeared  in  blooming  and  vigorous 
health,  with  full  visage  and  ruddy  complexion,  and 
without  a  sign  of  physical  defect;  his  height,  which 
was  five  feet  eight  inches,  set  off  a  well-proportioned 
figure.  Other  young  men  pronounced  him  handsome 
when  well  dressed,  but  one  who  seldom  gave  great 
thought  to  the  tailor;  to  women  he  seemed  always 
handsome.  Praise  never  seemed  to  turn  his  head  or 
make  him  conceited,  but  rather  encouraged  him  to 
do  well.  His  photograph,  taken  with  the  rest  of  the 
graduating  class,  was  a  strikingly  good  one ;  showing 
a  well-shaped  head,  well  poised  upon  square  shoulders ; 
a  beaming  expression  of  countenance ;  a  smooth  oval 
face  (for  the  mustache  was  worn  later),  which  exposed 
a  large  mouth  and  full  lips,  strong  index  of  the 
thought  or  feeling  that  stirred  within;  a  good  nose 
and  chin,  the  heritage  of  the  Schoulers;  a  high  and 
intellectual  forehead;   and  soft  hazel   eyes,   full  of 


BIOGRAPHY.  243 

expression,  which  were  perhaps  his  handsomest 
feature.  "A  fine  face  and  head,  indeed,"  said  a 
good  physiognomist  who  was  shown  one  of  these 
photographs.  "That  young  man  is  sprightly  and 
intelhgent;  but  I  should  judge  from  the  height  of 
the  back  of  his  head  that  his  organ  of  firmness  is 
pretty  fully  developed,  and  that  when  he  takes  up  an 
idea  he  sticks  to  it." 

Of  his  personal  character,  as  it  impressed  members 
of  the  college  faculty,  the  Plummer  Professor  i  thus 
wrote  to  a  friend  a  few  months  later:  "He  appears 
to  possess  excellent  qualities  for  an  academic  officer. 
There  is  a  certain  soundness  in  his  nature  readily  felt 
by  all  about  him;  a  genuineness  which  is  of  the 
utmost  worth  in  a  society  of  young  men.  His  mind 
and  heart  are  full  of  health.  There  is  a  fine  energy 
in  his  will,  coupled  with  a  conciliating  gentleness 
and  modesty  of  manner.  He  at  once  gives  and  con- 
sistently maintains  the  impression  of  a  thorough 
manliness."  After  dwelling  upon  his  capacity  and 
strength  as  a  scholar,  and  the  concentration  of  studies 
which  had  probably  carried  him  since  graduation  far 
beyond  the  respectable  rank  he  reached  in  his  class, 
he  added:  "Should  his  youth  be  thought  an  objec- 
tion (to  a  professorship)  the  dignity  of  his  bearing 
goes  far  to  outweigh  that  objection."  And  a  former 
teacher,  the  superintendent  of  the  Boston  schools, 
referring  to  "his  scholarly  habits,  his  purity  and 
elevation  of  character,  and  his  generous  ambition," 
said  "without  any  qualification  he  is  by  far  the  best 
man  for  such  a  post  whom  I  know  of  his  age  or  very 
near  his  age." 

"The  grand  virtue  of  men  is  sincerity,"  Schouler's 
father  had  once  written  to  him ;  and  the  son  did  not 

1  Since  Bishop  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Central  New  York. 


244  BIOGRAPHY. 

forget  that  precept.     In  the    quiet  retreat  of  New 
Hampshire,  he  strengthened  his  critical  knowledge 
,of   the  Latin   tongue,   which   occupied  most  of  his 
instruction   hours.     He   also   conducted   the   chapel 
music,    organizing   the   first   choir  from   among   the 
school-boys ;  and  during  all  the  leisure  time  he  could 
command  from  his  routine  work  he  studied  the  great 
English   poets  from   Chaucer   down,   and  the  great 
prose    writers,     besides    dipping    into    French    and 
German   translation.     Modern   history  and   rhetoric 
found  also  appropriate  hours  in  a  schedule  varied  by 
needful  recreation,  which  he  prepared,  ranging  from 
early   dawn   until    bedtime.     The   school,    since   so 
famous,    and   now   spreading   out  its   vast  array  of 
imposing  buildings  over  a  large  landscape,   was  as 
yet  confined  to  a  single  stuccoed  dwelling-house,   to 
which  was  added  a  wing  for  school-room  and  dormi- 
tory.    A  pretty  brick  chapel  stood  close  by ;  and  the 
number  of  boys  had  increased  to  forty,  which  was 
thought  a  handsome  limit.     Pupils  and  teachers  were 
so  much  of  the  time  together  under  one  roof,   for 
meals,  studies,    sleep,  and  even  recreation,  that  one 
longed  sometimes  to  escape  from  himself  and  find  a 
solitude.     But  amid  distractions  that  cost  the  high- 
minded  Dr.  Coit  himself  many  a  nervous  headache  and 
night  of  sleepless  anxiety  the  noble  work  was  pur- 
sued;  and   our  young   Harvard   graduate   felt    and 
aided  the  dignity  of  it.     Not  familiar  with  the  boys, 
and  yet  friendly  and  considerate  towards  them,  and 
gaining  their  warm  respect  in  return,  he  went  through 
his  tasks  without  serious  difficulty,  and  maintained 
a   steady   discipline.     In    the    few  instances   w^here 
boyish  mischief  tested  him  to  get  the  upper  hand  he 
quietly  contrived  to  disconcert  it.     His  poetical  muse 
did   not  wholly  slumber  through  all  this   grind   of 


BIOGRAPHY,  245 

study  and  recitation ;  for  on  the  anniversary  day  of 
the  school,  in  January,  1860,  an  ode  was  sung  of  his 
own  composition. 

On  March  20,  1860,  James  reached  majority, 
and  thus  made  birthday  record  in  his  diary :  "  If  in 
after  years  I  turn  back  to  this  leaf,  and  read  its 
record  of  good  resolutions,  ardent  hopes,  and  earnest 
prayers  for  the  future,  may  I  be  able  to  add  that  the 
life  to  which  I  now  look  forward,  was  not  spent  in 
vain.  I  commence  to-day  to  keep  my  accounts  in  a 
ledger  and  day-book  (or  journal),  and  shall  hereafter 
keep  them  thus.  I  commenced  my  accounts  of  cash 
expenses  when  I  entered  college,  and  have  kept  them 
ever  since ;  but  to-day  I  close  the  book.  On  taking 
an  inventory  of  personal  effects  I  find  I  may  consider 
myself  worth  1138.12."  If  all  this  grand  book- 
keeping seems  whimsical  for  a  youth  of  scanty  means 
to  apply  to  tailor  bills  and  salary  payments,  the 
method  thus  pursued  worked  out  good  grist  after- 
wards ;  for  it  was  largely  due  to  his  correct  and  syste- 
matic habits  in  these  petty  finances,  besides  his 
conscientious  distinctions  between  meum  and  tiium,, 
that  he  secured  confidence  for  the  management  and 
settlement  of  estates  which  constituted  so  large  a 
part  of  his  professional  business  a  few  years  later; 
procuring  him  ample  bondsmen,  while  he  possessed 
very  little  property  of  his  own. 

The  year  1860  saw  a  brighter  dawn  for  the 
Schouler  household,  and  relief,  for  a  good  space  at 
least,  from  the  son's  family  anxieties.  His  next 
brother  William,  whom  he  had  brought  with  him  to 
Concord,  to  coach  in  college  studies  with  reference 
to  the  ministry,  worked  into  an  admirable  arrange- 
ment with  Dr.   Coit,  which  gave  him  the  full  train- 


246  BIOGRAPHY. 

ing  he  had  deeply  at  heart,  and  his  independence  at 
the  same  time.  In  Massachusetts,  towards  the  close 
of  March,  his  father  received  from  Governor  Banks 
the  appointment  of  Adjutant-General  of  the  State,  — 
an  appointment  promised  in  old  friendship  months 
earlier,  but  deferred  because  of  some  military  opposi- 
tion stirred  up  by  the  incumbent  of  the  office.  The 
latter  procured  a  protest  from  the  militia  major- 
generals  against  a  change ;  and  this  proving  in  vain, 
a  complimentary  banquet  to  himself  was  arranged 
which  three  of  the  Governor's  aids  attended  in  rebel- 
lious dissatisfaction.  Banks  promptly  revoked  the 
commissions  of  these  aids,  fully  equal  to  such  an 
emergency;  his  staff  was  reorganized  for  the  better, 
and  William  Schouler  entered  upon  the  duties  of 
adjutant-general  on  Monday  the  2nd  of  April. 

With  this  welcome  change  of  pursuits,  William 
Schouler  made  his  residence  at  Lynn,  where,  near 
the  Swampscott  line,  a  modest  seaside  cottage  became 
his  family  home  for  the  next  ten  famous  years ;  and 
where,  too,  James  passed  many  happy  summers,  and 
sometimes  the  winter  months  besides.  It  was  part 
of  an  estate  owned  by  his  wife's  brother,  who,  with 
his  own  wife,  occupied  a  neighboring  house,  making 
the  summer  reunion  complete.  The  Schoulers  were 
lovers  of  nature,  and  felt  always  a  tenderness  for  this 
little  cottage,  resplendent  in  the  eastern  sun,  with 
the  changeful  ocean  in  full  sight  beating  out  its  daily 
harmonies  upon  the  beach.  And  at  Boston  in  his 
pleasant  suite  of  offices  on  the  southwestern  corner 
of  the  Bulfinch  State  House,  — ^,in  1860  quiet  enough 
as  compared  with  the  scenes  twelve  months  later,  — 
our  new  adjutant-general  attended  to  his  easy  routine 
duties,  receiving  congratulations  which  poured  in 
upon  him  from  every  part  of  the  State.     Personal 


BIOGRAPHY,  247 

friends  presented  him  with  his  military  uniform  and 
sword,  and  on  the  earliest  parades  honored  by  the 
Governor  and  staff,  his  popularity  was  clearly  seen. 
"With  a  single  clerk  for  assistant,  as  the  law  then 
provided,  and  for  himself  a  salary  of  eighteen  hun- 
dred dollars,  which  in  its  certainty  seemed  munificent, 
he  retained  the  capable  subordinate  of  his  prede- 
cessor, and  began  at  once  to  pay  from  his  own 
quarterly  savings  the  private  debts  which  had  greatly 
harassed  him. 

A  first  year's  public  experience,  and  the  last  while 
our  old  militia  peace  establishment  lasted,  is  worth  a 
moment's  notice.  General  Schouler  first  of  all 
stopped  an  abuse  of  perquisites  by  which  his  prede- 
cessor had  eked  out  an  income.  A  Boston  firm 
which  furnished  supplies  to  the  State  arsenal  sent  its 
bill  to  the  adjutant-general,  which  was  paid.  Next 
it  enclosed  a  personal  check  by  way  of  percentage  to 
the  adjutant-general;  and  he  deposited  the  check 
promptly  in  the  treasury  to  the  credit  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, and  ceased  dealing  with  that  firm.  In 
the  autumn  the  Prince  of  Wales  visited  Boston  with 
his  suite,  and  special  escorts  took  place;  and  it 
pleased  Governor  Banks  greatly  to  find  that  his  new 
adjutant-general  ended  the  year  with  an  unexpended 
balance,  having  carried  his  department  upon  a  saving 
of  four  thousand  dollars  over  the  year  preceding, 
notwithstanding  these  ovations. 

Nathaniel  P.  Banks  retired  from  office  at  the  close 
of  this  year;  and  the  fearless  John  A.  Andrew  suc- 
ceeded him  in  early  January,  1861.  Adjutant- 
General  Schouler  added  paragraphs  to  his  report  of 
1860,  as  it  now  went  through  the  press,  forecasting 
the  approach  of  civil  war,  and  advising  among  other 
specific   measures  the  issue  of  a  general  order   for 


248  BIOGRAPHY. 

reorganizing  the  active  militia  of  Massachusetts, 
and  preparing  to  place  it  on  a  war  footing.  "  You 
are  far  too  modest,  General,"  said  our  war  Governor 
to  him,  a  few  years  later,  when  a  boastful  brigadier 
of  the  present  Massachusetts  militia,  who  rose  to 
national  renown,  claimed  to  have  inspired  Andrew 
with  the  famous  "General  Order  No.  4,"  of  January 
16:  "that  order  originated  in  your  own  recommen- 
dation, already  in  print,  and  the  militia  preparations 
of  that  winter  which  equipped  Massachusetts  for  ready 
action  were  the  fruits  of  our  own  concert  and  consul- 
tation." The  son  remembers  well  that  while  many 
influential  citizens  of  the  State  were  blaming  the  new 
Executive  in  that  waiting  winter  for  what  they  thought 
rash  and  incendiary  preparations,  he  had  his  own  grave 
doubts  and  stated  them  to  his  father;  but  the  response 
was  such  as  assured  him  that  all  was  right,  and  that 
the  father  was  heart  and  soul  with  Governor  Andrew 
in  the  whole  business.  Each  had  his  own  national 
acquaintance  in  Washington,  and  advices  that  con- 
firmed his  military  foresight. 

James  Schouler  had  placed  a  year  as  the  proper 
limit  of  his  work  at  St.  Paul's  School,  unless  the 
way  proved  clear  to  the  appointment  he  wished  at 
Trinity  College.  His  kind  principal,  and  several 
influential  trustees  of  that  college,  were  his  friends, 
and  aided  the  promotion  so  zealously  that,  a  vacancy 
occurring  at  this  time  in  Trinity's  presidency,  the 
prominent  candidate  for  successor  promised,  if  chosen, 
to  bring  him  into  the  faculty.  But  temporary  oppo- 
sition to  this  candidate  developed  when  the  trustees 
met.  The  presidency  was  offered  to  another  and 
declined ;  and  meanwhile  the  vacant  professorship  of 
English   literature  went  to  a  person  of  means  who 


BIOGRAPHY,  249 

offered  to  serve  without  a  salary.  James,  in  conse- 
quence, announced  his  purpose  of  leaving  St.  Paul's 
School  when  the  summer  term  of  1860  ended,  and 
taking  up  the  study  of  law.  But  Dr.  Coit,  who  had 
more  than  once  urged  him  to  take  orders,  was  reluc- 
tant to  lose  this  assistant,  and  offered  many  induce- 
ments for  him  to  remain  and  make  his  life-work  at 
the  school  with  leisure  for  liberal  studies.  He  pre- 
dicted the  future  enlargement  of  that  institution  just 
as  came  later  to  pass.  Though  touched  by  such  deep 
sympathy  and  appreciation,  —  for  Dr.  Coit  was  a  most 
lovable  man, —  Schouler  adhered  to  his  own  views. 
"I  am  not  a  recluse  by  temperament,"  was  his  reply, 
"and  I  must  live  among  men,  and  not  boys."  They 
parted  friends  for  life ;  and  with  a  brother  left  behind 
for  a  while  among  the  instructors,  James  often 
revisited  this  haven  of  good  influences. 

Once  more  in  Massachusetts  our  author  took  up 
his  law  studies  with  zest,  living  at  the  parental  home 
by  the  seashore.  By  early  October,  1860,  he  was 
deep  in  Blackstone,  which  he  would  study  each  day 
at  the  State  library,  looking  in  upon  the  courts  for 
an  afternoon's  inspiration,  or  reciting  to  himself 
what  he  had  read  as  he  strolled  upon  the  common. 
On  the  20th  of  November  he  entered  the  office  of 
George  D.  Guild,  Esq.,  in  the  famous  "4  Court 
Street"  building.  He  was  his  preceptor's  first  and 
only  law  student ;  for  that  promising  member  of  the 
Boston  bar,  honorable  and  judicious,  died  untimely 
in  1862.  Here  James  used  the  desk  assigned  to  him 
so  long  as  he  continued  a  law  student ;  finding  in  an 
older  man  who  had  only  taken  him  in  for  instruction 
to  oblige  a  friend,  a  genial  personal  acquaintance. 
Schouler  did^  not  confine  himself  to  the  law  alone ; 
but  taking  advantage  of  hours  which  he  was    free 


250  BIOGRAPHY. 

to  arrange  to  suit  himself,  he  wrote  a  sketch  of 
New  England  life,  which,  rejected  by  the  "Atlantic 
Monthly,"  found  its  way  into  print,  but  not  fame, 
through  the  medium  of  an  obscure  magazine  which 
paid  nothing  for  contributions,  —  "a  better  fate," 
says  our  author,  "than  the  essay  deserved."  He  also 
explored  at  home  by  the  evening  lamp  such  books 
as  "Judge  Story's  Life  and  Letters"  and  the 
"Federalist."  "I  am  deeply  interested  in  the 
political  history  of  our  country,"  he  records  in 
January,  1861;  and  a  campaign  book,  which  fell 
somewhat  earlier  into  his  hands,  "Hall's  Republican 
Party,"  with  its  historical  sketch  of  political  parties 
in  the  United  States,  stirred  him  earliest  to  make 
that  subject  his  own  for  literary  treatment  some 
day. 

This  was  a  winter  of  exciting  suspense  in  public 
affairs,  and  the  diary  of  our  author  shows  how  deeply 
his  own  interest  was  engaged.  Though  entering 
upon  his  majority  as  a  Seward  Republican,  he  had 
studied  up  the  candidate,  and  believed  him  true  and 
trustworthy.  He  rejoiced  in  Abraham  Lincoln's 
triumphal  election  in  November,  and  earnestly  hoped 
that  there  would  be  "  no  more  compromises  to  secure 
the  increase  of  slavery."  A  passage  in  one  of  Judge 
Story's  letters  which  he  came  across  seemed  so  per- 
tinent to  the  winter's  discussion  in  Congress  that  he 
copied  it  out  and  got  it  inserted  in  one  of  the  news- 
papers. He  and  his  law  preceptor,  whose  politics 
differed  from  his  own,  had  many  a  characteristic 
office  discussion  on  this  subject,  the  one  in  fiery 
earnest,  the  other  moderate  and  calm.  At  length  in 
April,  1861,  Fort  Sumter  fell,  and  all  Boston  blazed 
with  enthusiasm  as  the  militia  regiments  of  Massachu- 


BIOGRAPHY.  251 

setts  went  forth,  already  organized  and  equipped,  to 
the  defence  of  the  nation. 

The  adjutant-general  had  not  been  home  for  three 
days,  and  the  son  went  up  to  the  State  House. 
"James,"  said  his  father,  pointing  to  a  heap  of 
unopened  letters,  "you  must  help  me  out  in  this 
correspondence;  I  need  your  services."  So  the 
young  law  student  became  installed  in  the  adjutant- 
general's  inner  office;  there  performing  the  duty  of  a 
private  secretary,  and  working  off  details  discon- 
nected with  rosters  and  commissions.  He  kept 
informed  and  imparted  information  on  all  topics  of 
interest  to  soldiers  and  town  authorities,  incidentally 
making  the  acquaintance  of  the  distinguished  callers 
who  thronged  the  State  House  at  this  time,  of  those 
earlier  officers  who  recruited  and  led  the  Massachu- 
setts Volunteers  to  the  front,  and  of  the  Governor 
and  Executive  officials  besides.  The  Governor's 
Council  fixed  a  fair  standard  of  recompense  for  the 
new  force  of  clerks  in  the  military  department ;  and 
out  of  his  salary  our  author  in  less  than  six  months 
repaid  the  uncle  in  full  who  had  assisted  him  at 
college,  and  thus  stood  free  from  all  money  obliga- 
tions. He  was  not  tempted,  however,  to  turn  into  a 
new  channel  and  make  civil  or  military  service  his 
life  pursuit ;  but  pui-sued  his  law  studies  still,  as  he 
might,  availing  himself  of  the  precious  hours  of 
evening  or  early  morning,  and  poring,  as  he  travelled 
in  the  train,  over  the  solid  volume  in  law-calf  which 
he  carried  back  and  forth.  By  January  18,  1862, 
he  had  passed  his  written  examination  before  the 
Supreme  Court  in  Suffolk  County  —  "a  very  credit- 
able one,"  as  Chief- Justice  Bigelow  afterwards  told 
him  —  and  was  formally  admitted  to  the  Massachu- 
setts bar  on  the   23rd  of   the  same   month.     When 


252  BIOGRAPHY, 

he  ended  finally  his  labors  at  the  State  House,  he 
found  lying  upon  the  desk  a  commission  of  justice 
of  the  peace  issued  to  him  without  an  application; 
an  unexpected  token  of  thoughtfulness  and  good- 
will from  the  Governor,  such  as  endeared  that 
famous  man  so  greatly  to  all  who  ever  served  under 
him. 

With  an  office  in  Niles's  Block,  whose  expenses 
were  shared  by  another  young  lawyer  and  college 
friend,  and  with  a  shining  sign  under  his  window, 
Schouler  sought  clients,  and  was  not  long  kept  wait- 
ing. A  personal  friend  had  handed  him  a  note  for 
collection,  as  the  first  piece  of  business  following 
his  admission  to  the  bar.  An  inevitable  swarm  of 
soldier  claimants  sought  him  from  the  State  House 
which  his  scrupulous  father  avoided  all  agency  in 
directing.  Our  author's  decided  preference  was  for 
jury  trials;  and  his  first  case  of  the  kind  came  at 
once  from  the  adjutant-general's  office  to  launch  his 
reputation.  The  colored  messenger  of  that  bureau, 
officiously  but  innocently,  and  most  probably  as  the 
dupe  of  some  hangers-on  at  the  State  House,  had 
passed  a  forged  soldier's  check,  and  was  prosecuted 
for  doing  so  in  the  United  States  District  Court. 
The  adjutant-general  believed  his  innocence  and 
stood  by  him ;  but  in  those  times  an  accused  person 
could  not  testify  at  his  trial,  nor  was  evidence  for 
the  messenger  procurable  at  all  but  that  of  good 
character.  His  young  counsel,  who  served  without 
recompense,  conducted  the  case  so  skilfully  upon  his 
unsupported  theory  of  innocence,  and  made  so  earnest 
a  plea  that  the  jury  disagreed  upon  two  trials,  and 
the  prosecution  dropped.  This  messenger  showed 
his  gratitude  by  constant  fidelity  to  the  adjutant- 
general,  serving  for  many  years  at  the  State  House, 


BIOGRAPHY.  253 

and  gaining  a  life-long  renown  among  his  own  race 
for  military  talent  and  probity. 

With  his  second  brother  John  appointed  to  the 
Naval  Academy  in  1861,  James  was  the  only  son 
left  with  his  sisters  in  the  parental  household;  and 
for  a  winter  residence  near  Boston,  where  he  might 
vote  and  claim  his  domicile,  he  had  chosen  Dedham, 
the  county  town  of  Norfolk.  Friends  welcomed  him 
here,  and  the  good  rector  of  his  former  church  made 
him  the  Sunday-school  superintendent.  His  Boston 
practice  brought  him  a  self-supporting  income  for 
the  very  first  year.  But  he  followed  the  progress  of 
the  Union  strife  with  a  constant  uneasiness  lest  he 
should  fall  short  of  the  duty  he  owed  as  a  citizen. 
The  first  Bull  Run  battle  of  1861,  disheartening  as 
it  was,  had  impressed  him  with  the  true  logic  of  our 
national  situation.  "We  must  now  forego,"  says  his 
diary  when  the  news  arrived,  "the  expectation  of 
crushing  the  rebellion  at  once,  but  must  patiently 
pursue  a  long  war ;  and  a  bloody  revolution  is  to  be 
ushered  in.  I  do  not  despair  of  the  republic ;  but  I 
think  the  downfall  of  slavery  is  to  be  a  result  of  this 
revolution." 

The  summer  of  1862,  which  followed  with  its 
gloomy  disasters,  deepened  his  desire  to  be  at  the 
front  with  braver  youth  who  were  sacrificing  for  their 
country.     He  was  now  twenty-two  years  of  age. 

"  Shall  I  be  carried  to  the  sky 
On, flowery  beds  of  ease  ?  " 

he  asks  himself  in  his  diar}%  quoting  a  well-known 
hymn.  He  took  part  in  July  at  a  Dedham  town- 
meeting  called  to  raise  volunteers,  making  there  the 
first  political  speech  of  his  life.  When  in  early 
August  Massachusetts  was  called  upon  for  nineteen 


254  BIOGRAPHY. 

thousand  nine  months'  men,  he  could  hold  back  no 
longer,  but  enlisted  in  a  Boston  company  which  his 
office-mate  had  begun  raising.  Released  from  this 
roll  under  an  authority  with  a  popular  Dedham  youth 
to  raise  a  Dedham  company,  their  conjoint  appeal, 
with  the  co-operation  of  selectmen  and  committee, 
brought  the  maximum  number  to  their  standard  in  a 
single  day.  Young  men,  the  flower  of  the  town, 
enlisted.  Schouler's  friend  was  chosen  first  lieuten- 
ant and  he  the  second.  An  older  man  from  outside 
was  summoned  as  captain;  and  the  company  soon 
went  into  camp  at  Readville,  attached  to  the  Forty- 
third  Regiment  of  Massachusetts  Volunteers.  Pro- 
fessional business  was  now  turned  over  for  non- 
combatants  to  manage.  Drill,  tactics,  military  study, 
superseded  civil  pursuits,  and,  like  Gibbon,  our 
author  may  say  that  an  experience  of  this  kind  was 
not  without  its  later  help  towards  preparing  historical 
narrative.  But,  as  young  Schouler  wrote  his  father 
from  the  field,  he  had  gone  into  the  service,  not  for 
fame  nor  from  any  relish  for  military  life ;  but  solely 
to  perform  what  a  young  and  able-bodied  citizen 
owed  to  his  country. 

On  the  12th  of  November,  1862,  the  Forty-third 
Massachusetts  reached  by  transport  the  North  Caro- 
lina coast ;  and  except  for  the  Goldsboro'  expedition 
passed  most  of  its  time  quietly  about  Newbern,  like 
most  of  the  other  nine  months'  troops  from  that 
State.  But  Lieutenant  Schouler,  detailed  at  once 
for  Signal  Service,  on  reaching  the  front,  learned  the 
Myer  code  with  some  other  nine  months'  officers,  and 
gained  a  far  wider  occupation  than  would  have  been 
possible  in  the  regimental  line.  He  served  thus  in 
various  staff  positions  with  illustrious  officers  of  the 
army  and  navy.     He  was  with  a  river  fleet  of  gun- 


BIOGRAPHY.  255 

boats  which  were  sent  to  co-operate  with  the  Golds- 
boro'  movement,  being  once  under  fire,  but  otherwise 
encountering  incidents  more  humorous  than  heroic. 
He  took  his  turn  with  flag  and  torch  in  charge  of  a 
lonely  signal-station  on  the  line  of  the  railroad 
between  Newbern  and  Morehead  City.  He  served 
on  General  Naglee's  staff  in  a  winter's  expedition  to 
South  Carolina,  and  after  being  detached  for  duty  in 
that  department,  he  accompanied  General  Stevenson's 
forces  to  North  Edisto  inlet  at  the  close  of  March, 
1863,  in  which  harbor  he  served  on  board  various 
naval  gunboats,  communicating  with  the  shore,  until, 
towards  the  close  of  May,  at  his  own  request,  he  was 
sent  back  to  North  Carolina  in  season  to  rejoin  his 
regiment  on  its  return  home.  While  at  Edisto  inlet 
he  went  on  board  some  of  the  new  and  curious  iron- 
clads brought  thither.  He  saw  the  splendid  fleet  of 
Admiral  Dupont  sail  forth  on  a  bright  Sunday  morn- 
ing to  capture  Charleston,  and  then  return  crestfallen 
after  a  mere  reconnoissance.  Reconnoitring  pre- 
viously before  Charleston  harbor  in  the  vessel  to 
which  he  belonged,  he  discerned  Fort  Sumter  and 
Sullivan's  Island  through  his  signal  telescope.  Home- 
ward bound  from  Newbern  in  June  with  his  regiment 
once  more,  he  passed  a  night  off  Yorktown,  went  into 
temporary  camp  at  Old  Point  Comfort,  and  touched 
port  at  Baltimore  about  the  first  of  July.  The 
glorious  news  of  Gettysburg  was  here  received ;  and 
part  of  his  regiment,  though  claiming  that  their 
time  was  up,  went  towards  Harper's  Ferry  to  aid  in 
the  effort  to  intercept  Lee's  retreat.  While  on  Mary- 
land heights  doing  provost  duty  as  officer  of  the  day, 
among  these  grand  and  picturesque  surroundings, 
our  young  lieutenant  saw  the  tattered  Army  of  the 
Potomac  pass  by  in  vain  pursuit  of  the  enemy.     Back 


256  BIOGRAPHY. 

once  more  by  slow  trains  to  Baltimore,  and  entitled 
for  this  special  service  to  the  badge  of  the  Sixth 
Army  Corps,  the  fragment  of  this  Forty-third  Mas- 
sachusetts Regiment  proceeded  to  Boston,  and  on 
the  morning  of  July  21  the  troops  breakfasted  and 
greeted  their  rejoicing  friends  on  Boston  Common; 
next  proceeding  to  Boylston  Hall,  where  they  broke 
ranks  and  dispersed. 

James's  pocket  diary  and  letters  to  the  family 
describe  very  fully  this  army  experience ;  and  what- 
ever his  secret  dread  or  privations,  they  kept  up  the 
constant  strain  of  loyalty  and  cheerfulness.  In  per- 
sonal habits  he  had  always  been  abstinent,  though  by 
no  means  an  anchorite;  and  during  his  army  life, 
with  so  many  young  men  of  good  parentage  under 
him  to  whom  example  was  everything,  he  resolved 
not  to  smoke  nor  drink  a  drop ;  and  that  resolve  he 
faithfully  kept.  As  for  smoking,  he  has  often  said, 
that  though  his  father  was  an  inveterate  consumer  of 
the  weed,  he  went  through  college  and  through  army 
life  without  ever  indulging  the  habit ;  after  which  he 
took  it  up  in  moderation  for  social  companionship 
alone.  From  the  day  of  his  enlistment  he  appeared 
constantly  confident  that  he  should  return  home  in 
health  and  safety;  and  he  was  so  carelessly  secure 
of  life,  that,  having  his  revolver  stolen  soon  after 
reaching  the  seat  of  war,  he  finished  his  long  cam- 
paign with  no  weapon  about  his  person  except  his 
sword.  Camp  life  had  at  once  made  him  rugged  and 
hearty,  the  picture  of  health  when  he  started  on  his 
perilous  mission;  and  so  it  continued  until  the  jour- 
ney home.  But  while  encamped  on  Federal  Hill 
near  Baltimore,  a  night's  exposure  to  a  heavy  rain 
brought  on  a  fever  and  ague  so  acute  that  he  dragged 


BIOGRAPHY.  257 

his  way  on  the  Harper's  Ferry  march  with  the  utmost 
difficulty,  and  reached  home  again  pale,  feeble,  and 
utterly  exhausted.  A  few  weeks  of  tender  care  at 
the  seaside  cottage  brought  him  out,  as  it  seemed,  all 
right  again;  after  which,  at  the  close  of  August, 
1863,  he  was  sent  to  Washington,  under  special  State 
House  orders,  to  procure  copies  of  the  deficient 
muster  rolls  of  Massachusetts  troops  at  the  war 
department.  This  first  visit  to  the  national  capital, 
though  in  the  hot  season  of  recess,  was  an  unfailing 
delight,  and  fixed  him  in  the  wish  to  connect  himself 
more  intimately  with  the  historic  district  upon  the 
Potomac.  While  at  Washington  he  gained  a  vivid 
impression  of  our  capital  city  in  its  Avar  aspect;  he 
strolled  through  its  deserted  temple  of  legislation  and 
the  busy  Executive  buildings;  he  met  President 
Lincoln  four  times  face  to  face;  he  conversed  with 
Secretary  Chase,  who  received  him  cordially;  he 
dined  at  the  family  table  with  Secretary  Seward,  — 
a  special  attention  with  incidents  which  he  never  for- 
got; and  he  took  in  the  faces  and  forms  of  Stanton, 
Welles,  Halleck,  and  others  of  the  magnates  who 
then  presided  over  the  gigantic  strife.  Returning  to 
Massachusetts,  he  adjusted  mistakes,  whereby  he  had 
been  drafted  in  two  places  while  soldiering  the  past 
winter;  and  by  the  first  of  October,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-four,  he  was  once  more  in  Niles's  Block, 
Boston,  with  his  former  law  companion,  sharing  a 
more  commodious  office  than  before,  and  starting  the 
professional  life.  anew.  As  a  tribute  to  his  military 
efficiency  he  received  from  Washington  headquarters 
the  tempting  offer  of  a  captaincy  in  the  new  Signal 
Corps,  which  had  been  lately  organized  under  an  Act 
of  Congress,  and,  as  its  officers  hoped,  was  virtually 
and  permanently  a  part  of  the  regular  army ;  but  he 


258  BIOGRAPHY. 

heeded  his  mother's  wishes  and  declined  all  further 
military  life. 

Clients  now  poured  in  upon  young  Schouler  again; 
and  most  of  all  the  war  claimants,  whom  he  tried 
vainly  to  bar  out,  so  as  to  give  to  court  practice  the 
full  precedence.  In  November,  1863,  Governor 
Andrew  appointed  him  a  public  administrator  of 
Suffolk  County;  an  office  still  retained,  which  famil- 
iarized him  with  probate  business  and  the  settlement 
of  estates.  This  appointment  made  it  needful  for  him 
to  leave  Dedham  finally  and  make  Suffolk  County  his 
place  of  residence;  but  he  still  passed  his  summers 
with  parents  and  sisters  at  the  seashore,  they,  too, 
sojourning  usually  in  Boston  during  winter  months, 
where  he  resided.  His  professional  practice  was  at 
once  lucrative,  as  recommenced,  and  yielded  him  a 
handsome  support;  so  that  with  a  trifling  balance 
which  he  had  saved  from  his  army  pay,  he  was  now 
able  to  start  his  little  capital  by  investing  in  a  gov- 
ernment bond.  His  office-mate  soon  leaving  the 
legal  profession  for  journalism  in  another  city, 
Schouler  rented  the  whole  office,  and  then  added 
the  adjoining  one  for  his  own  business  needs ;  pres- 
ently making  room  in  the  suite  for  his  college  class- 
mate and  constant  friend,  Ellis  L.  Motte.  He 
showed  himself  public-spirited  in  politics;  he  read 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  at  Boston's  Fourth 
of  July  celebration  in  1864,  and  next  found  himself 
selected  to  present  and  read  the  resolutions  at  a 
Presidential  ratification  meeting  held  by  the  Repub- 
licans about  ten  weeks  later  at  Faneuil  Hall.  After 
speaking  at  various  local  rallies  he  cast  in  November 
the  first  national  vote  of  his  life  for  President  Lin- 
coln's re-election. 


BIOGRAPHY.  259 

But  now  appeared  marked  symptoms  of  a  physical 
disorder  which  was  soon  to  suppress  the  social  activi- 
ties of  our  author  and  turn  the  current  of  impetuous 
achievement  into  a  new  and  more  quiet  channel. 
He  had  during  his  college  career  perceived  a  partial 
deafness  in  the  left  ear,  of  which  he  only  made  jest, 
as  a  positive  convenience  whenever  hilarity  went  on 
too  noisily  about  him.  Few  noticed  this  difficulty  at 
all,  and  none  had  thought  it  the  slightest  hindrance 
to  his  chosen  pursuits  before  he  returned  from  the 
seat  of  war.  Watchful  of  himself,  however,  he  con- 
sulted a  physician  for  the  first  time  in  November, 
1859,  as  his  diary  shows  us;  and  Dr.  Edward 
Reynolds  of  Boston  told  him  that  on  the  left  ear  was 
the  scar  of  an  ulcer  which  hindered  the  drum  from 
vibrating,  —  a  trouble  that  could  not  be  remedied. 
Soon  after  young  Schouler  came  home  from  his  army 
service,  and  in  close  connection  with  the  fever  and 
ague  which  he  had  contracted  in  Baltimore,  deafness 
spread  to  the  other  ear,  and  those  at  home  quickly 
detected  his  difficulty.  On  July  24,  1863,  he  began 
a  regular  course  of  treatment  with  a  Boston  physi- 
cian, reputed  a  specialist  in  such  cases,  — "  the 
first,"  observes  our  author,  "among  many  courses  of 
one  kind  and  another,  which  I  have  patiently  tried 
from  year  to  year  without  obtaining  the  slightest 
relief."  Insidious  in  approach,  as  it  always  con- 
tinued, producing  neither  dizziness,  ringing  in  the 
ears,  nor  other  mental  inconvenience  in  the  least 
degree,  —  the  dread  foe  speedily  advanced ;  and  by 
another  year  and  after  a  slight  recurrence  of  his  army 
fever  in  July,  1864,  people  began  to  perceive  that 
he  heard  imperfectly,  and  they  raised  their  voices 
slightly  when  accosting  him. 

During  October,  1864,  Schouler  consulted  in  New 


260  BIOGRAPHY, 

York  City  an  eminent  specialist,  who  told  him  the 
nature  of  his  difficulty,  and  strongly  advised  him  to 
place  himself  under  the  care  of  Dr.  Edward  H. 
Clarke  of  his  own  city  as  the  very  best  man  for  relief. 
"See,"  he  added,  "whether  he  does  not  explain  your 
case  as  I  do."  Our  patient  did  so,  and  found  that 
the  two  physicians  agreed  in  their  diagnosis  upon  a 
personal  examination.  There  was  a  calcareous  de- 
posit within  the  drum  of  each  ear,  whose  tendency, 
from  some  inner  predisposing  cause,  was  to  thicken, 
and  thus  prevent  the  drum  from  vibrating  properly. 
But  whence  this  predisposing  cause  no  medical  ad- 
viser ever  explained.  "All  calcareous  deposit," 
once  said  a  European  doctor  to  our  author,  "origi- 
nates in  rheumatism;"  and  the  rheumatic  sickness 
which  he  brought  home  from  the  war  was  his  first 
real  departure  from  sound  health  since  an  early 
childhood  remarkably  free  from  the  average  child's 
ailments.  He  sometimes  caught  cold  and  had 
coughs;  but  so,  too,  have  others  in  normal  health. 
No  perceptible  relief  has  come  from  treatment  on  the 
catarrhal  theory  nor  by  electricity  or  massage.  Allop- 
athy, homoeopathy,  perforation  of  the  drum,  have 
alike  failed  to  improve  his  hearing  or  even  to  check 
its  deterioration.  To  various  doctors  he  has  sug- 
gested that  perhaps  a  scalp-wound  or  a  laceration  of 
the  right  hand,  both  injuries  of  boyhood  which  left 
permanent  soars,  had  something  to  do  with  this  de- 
posit; but  they  reject  each  hypothesis.  No  heredi- 
tary deafness  is  traceable  in  the  parental  stock.  But 
as  for  Dr.  Clarke,  of  whose  advice  he  now  availed 
himself  in  Boston  while  he  could,  that  eminent  physi- 
cian inspired  him  with  great  confidence  by  the  skill 
he  showed,  by  breadth  of  information,  and  by  what 
among  medical  advisers  is  so  often  lacking,  —  fertil- 


BIOGRAPHY.  261 

ity  in  resources.  His  own  professional  effort  was  to 
produce  absorption  of  calcareous  matter  in  the  blood ; 
but  at  the  same  time  leaving  no  other  experiment 
untried,  he  sent  out  his  patient  to  try  electricity,  and 
afterwards  recommended  him  to  a  young  aurist  who 
was  fresh  from  European  schools  and  the  latest  dis- 
coveries. When  friends  of  the  author  had  spoken  of 
a  wonder-working  German  instrument  for  operations 
upon  the  deaf,  he  produced  such  an  instrument  from 
his  closet  and  showed  very  clearly  why  it  could  not 
benefit  one  like  him. 

In  short,  from  all  the  many  medical  men  here  and 
abroad,  whom  our  author  has  since  consulted  in  the 
vain  hope  of  at  least  arresting  the  progress  of  his 
physical  disability,  he  has  extracted  no  advice  more 
alleviating  than  that  which  this  most  admirable  phy- 
sician bestowed  as  the  epitome  of  his  own  experience 
in  the  case,  —  to  "  avoid  over- work  and  take  care  of 
the  general  health." 


VII. 

1866-1872. 

General  William  Schouler,  by  virtue  of  the 
exalted  military  station  which  he  filled  in  Massachu- 
setts, during  the  whole  period  of  our  Civil  War,  and 
while  the  noble  John  A.  Andrew  was  Governor, 
remains  among  the  devoted  citizens  of  that  State  who 
best  deserve  an  imperishable  remembrance.  With 
such  a  chief  to  serve  under  in  his  full  prime,  and 
such  a  chance  for  public  usefulness,  he  felt  the  stimu- 
lus to  high  exertion,  and  did  his  best  faithfully, 
patiently,  and  patriotically  under  the  immense  pres- 
sure  of  new  labors   which  were  imposed  upon  his 


262  BIOGRAPHY. 

office.  In  the  fearful  trial  through  which  Massachu- 
setts was  now  summoned  to  pass,  he  showed  in  all 
their  strength  the  shining  qualities  of  his  character; 
so  that  whatever  fellow-citizen  might  possibly  have 
excelled  him -in  a  certain  polish  that  comes  from 
scholastic  training,  no  man  could,  all  in  all,  have 
been  so  well  qualified  for  the  adjutant-generalship  at 
this  time  as  he  who  went  through  these  tremendous 
years  of  war  with  his  executive  commander-in-chief 
to  the  costly  goal  of  victory. 

Our   adjutant-general   was   not   content  with   the 
orderly  functions  of  a  bureau  which,  of  all  others, 
is  apt  to  get  all  too  readily  into  the  grooves  of  mar- 
tinet and  punctilious  authority.     He  organized  and 
recruited  Massachusetts  regiments,  consolidating  frag- 
mentary bodies  in   the    State   camps,    and   applying 
immeasurable  tact  and  kindness  to  reduce  the  friction 
so  constantly  engendered  among  raw  military  aspirants 
and  raw  enlisted  men,  and  to  draw  all  together  into 
harmony  for  the  common  weal.     Besides  other  high 
officials   and   legislators   in   his   own  State,    he   had 
national  military  organizers  and  officials  to  encounter, 
and  to  move  smoothly  with,  in  a  common  task  which 
could  not  possibly  escape  asperities  on  the  one  hand 
nor  permit  of  haughty  compulsion  on  the  other.     "  It 
was  in  this  place,"  records  one  good  observer,  "that 
he  had  the  best  opportunity  to  show  that  warmth  of 
sympathy  and  true  democratic  instinct  which  no  man 
ever  possessed   in   a  higher  degree."     Nor  did  his 
labors   cease  with  the  routine  performance  of  such 
duties.     "He  worked  for  the  soldier,"  says  another, 
"with  all  the  devotion  of  a  personal  friend.     While 
marshalling  and  directing  large  numbers  of  armed 
men,  he  did  not  forget  that  they  were  torn  from  the 
homes  of  a  lifelong  peace  to   do   the  unaccustomed 


BIOGRAPHY.  263 

work  of  cruel  war.  Not  a  man  went  to  the  front 
from  Massachusetts  during  the  whole  of  that  dreary 
period,  without  feeling  that  the  friendship  and  sym- 
pathy of  the  adjutant-general  accompanied  him.  He 
knew  the  stuff  of  which  our  regiments  were  made." 

Easily  assumed  by  spectators  to  have  failings  for 
such  a  task,  though  admitted  by  all  who  knew  him 
as  one  of  the  most  genial  of  men,  having  qualifica- 
tions of  zeal,  industry,  and  honesty  which  none 
could  deny,  he  proved  his  higher  directing  qualities 
from  year  to  year,  until  executive  and  legislature 
accorded  in  their  full  confidence.  In  fact,  his  long 
and  intimate  knowledge  of  Massachusetts,  not  to 
add  of  men  and  politics  in  Washington  and  at  the 
northwest,  was  beyond  that  of  all  others  who  worked 
at  the  State  House ;  while  his  long  journalistic  expe- 
rience made  him  fluent  and  expressive  with  the  pen, 
—  an  advantage  by  no  means  slight  in  those  times 
of  multitudinous  composition.  As  for  the  more 
technical  work  of  his  bureau,  Senator  Wilson  con- 
veyed the  commendation  of  the  war  department  at 
Washington  that  Massachusetts  rolls  and  records 
there  were  the  most  perfect  of  all  the  States.  Nor 
content  with  this,  he  wove  into  his  annual  reports, 
wliich  were  marvels  of  spontaneous  industry,  such 
full  and  accurate  accounts  of  the  experience  of 
Massachusetts  volunteers  in  the  field,  as  circulated 
those  public  documents  far  and  Avide  for  fireside 
reading,  and  furnished  to  other  States  an  example  of 
adjutant-general  and  war  annalist  at  the  time  wholly 
unique.  And  thus  it  worked  out  that  the  new  Gov- 
ernor, Avho  himself  had  not  fully  understood  the 
capacity  of  the  man  whom  he  found  already  in  place, 
began  the  military  labors  which  our  President's  first 
call  devolved  upon  him,  by  detaching  the  quarter- 


264  BIOGRAPHY. 

master  and  ordnance  bureaus  from  the  control  of  his 
adjutant-general,  and  transmitting  orders  to  his  chief 
of  staff  through  a  coterie  of  military  aids;  but  as 
time  went  on  he  drew  more  and  more  closely  into  a 
personal  military  relation  with  his  adjutant-general, 
attracted  by  the  latter's  sagacious  counsel  on  all  diffi- 
cult points,  his  faithful  disinterestedness  and  wide 
experience,  his  unassu.ming  talents,  and,  not  least  of 
all,  by  those  traits  of  good  fellowship  which  they  had 
in  common,  and  which  gradually  endeared  them  to 
one  another  like  brothers  in  arms.  "The  relations 
that  existed  between  these  two  men,"  it  has  been 
well  said  by  a  contemporary,  "  were  of  the  closest  and 
most  affectionate  character;"  and  "their  friendship 
grew  out  of  the  innate  generosity  and  manliness  of 
both ;  for  neither  could  brook  meanness  or  littleness 
in  any  of  its  manifestations." 

The  adjutant-general's  intercourse  with  his  own 
bureau  subordinates  was  marked  by  the  tenderest 
solicitude ;  and  while  he  kept  them  up  to  their  work, 
he  erred,  if  at  all,  on  the  side  of  kindliness  and  good- 
nature. For  instance,  the  clerk  who  succeeded 
James  as  private  secretary,  the  son  of  an  old  friend, 
came  too  well  recommended;  for  though  a  neat 
copyist,  it  proved  that  he  could  not  compose  readily 
nor  accurately;  yet,  rather  than  wound  a  father  he 
loved  or  a  son  whose  faithfulness  was  unimpeachable, 
the  adjutant-general  went  on  through  the  war,  bear- 
ing the  disadvantage  as  he  might,  though  compelled 
in  consequence  to  elaborate  the  drafts  of  most  official 
letters,  while  harassed  with  other  drudgery. 

While  organizing  well,  General  Schouler  pursued 
a  primary  system  of  his  own ;  which  was  to  bind  his 
bureau  by  red  tape  as  little  as  possible,  consistently 
with   general   order   and  accuracy,    and  to  make  it 


BIOGRAPHY.  265 

headquarters  whither  all  might  resort,  the  highest  or 
the  humblest,  man  or  woman,  and  gain  information 
and  comforting  words  for  those  far  away  to  whom 
the  nation  and  CommouAvealth  owed  a  debt  of  grati- 
tude. Accordingly,  while  he  left  military  commis- 
sions and  orders  to  the  supervision  of  his  faithful 
clerk,  now  promoted  to  a  staff  officer,  and  confided 
other  routine  duties  to  capable  heads,  he  reserved  to 
himself  and  to  his  inner  office  the  immense  miscel- 
laneous correspondence  and  public  intercourse  of  the 
department.  Those  familiar  with  our  general  were 
amazed  at  his  facility  in  working  off  all  inquiries  by 
mail  or  in  person,  so  as  to  inform  without  offending ; 
doing,  if  possible,  the  thing  wanted  and  in  the 
quickest  way.  His  grasp  of  the  day's  duties  was 
remarkable;  and  his  secretary,  asking  at  noon  how 
certain  letters  by  the  morning's  mail  that  he  had 
glanced  at  were  to  be  answered,  would  find  that  he 
had  orally  responded  and  settled  the  point  while 
down  town.  A  flavor  of  hearty  interest  quite  char- 
acteristic pervaded  in  consequence  his  busy  emana- 
tions; few  men  could  so  well  combine  social  and 
political  talk  with  business.  The  Governor  liked  to 
refer  papers  to  him  for  a  formal  report,  because  the 
general  not  only  stated  difficulties  well,  but  was  sure 
to  suggest  some  sensible  plan  for  escaping  them.  As 
for  those  huge  annual  reports,  they,  like  his  volumes 
of  military  history  afterwards,  were  planned,  arranged, 
and  written  out  entirely  by  himself;  and  he  would 
work  over  them,  in  the  long  evening  hours  of  winter 
as  a  labor  of  love  while  he  boarded  with  his  family  in 
Boston.  Often,  as  men  passed  by  on  Beacon  Street 
while  pursuing  their  evening  pleasures,  did  they  see 
across  the  State  House  terraces  the  light  shining 
through  the  brown  window-shade  at   the  southwest 


266  BIOORAPHT. 

corner  where  the  adjutant-general  sat  composing  at 
his  solitary  desk. 

The  close  of  the  war  found  General  Schouler  happy 
in  his  appreciated  public  labors.  The  Massachusetts 
legislature,  unsolicited,  had  passed  an  Act  which 
raised  his  rank  from  brigadier  to  major-general;  it 
had  also  increased  his  salary  to  a  self-supporting 
standard,  though,  as  he  sometimes  remarked,  he 
would  have  preferred  his  original  eighteen  hundred  a 
year  payable  in  gold,  had  that  been  possible.  John 
A.  Andrew,  on  retiring  from  office  after  the  war  had 
ended,  paid  him  the  worthiest  of  tributes  in  an  Execu- 
tive Order  which  he  purposely  penned  and  issued  as 
the  last  official  act  of  his  own  illustrious  career  as 
Governor.  1  Under  his  son's  legal  direction,  William 
Schouler  had  recently  discharged  the  long-sustained 
burden  of  personal  debt  by  assigning  over  his  share 
in  his  deceased  father's  estate ;  so  that  if  not  owning 
a  dollar  at  this  time,  he  could  not  be  said  to  owe  one. 
Watchful  of  convivial  temptations,  whose  danger  he 
well  understood,  he  had  lately  pledged  himself  to  total 
abstinence,  that  nothing  might  be  wanting  for  leaving 
to  his  children  the  legacy  of  an  unblemished  name. 

One  would  have  thought  that  an  adjutant-general 
of  such  a  character  and  services  was  sure  of  retaining 

1  As  the  full  scope  of  the  historical  compliment  thereby  intended 
is  sometimes  misapprehended,  this  executive  military  order,  composed 
by  Governor  Andrew  himself,  is  subjoined :  — 

January  6,  1866. 

Executive  Military  Order  No.  1. 

The  Governor  and  Commander-in-Chief,  at  the  moment  of  retir- 
ing from  office,  as  his  last  official  act,  tenders  this  expression  of  grate- 
ful and  cordial  respect  to  Major-General  William  Schouler,  Adjutant- 
General  of  the  Commonwealth,  who  has  served  the  country,  the 
Commonwealth,  and  his  chief  with  constancy,  devotion,  ability,  and 
success,  throughout  his  administration.  John  A.  Andrew. 


BIOGRAPHY.  267 

long  his  place.  "You  will  hold  it  all  your  life," 
said  a  member  of  the  retiring  Governor's  staff,  a 
fellow-citizen  of  the  incoming  Executive.  Yet  adju- 
tant-orenerals  hold  office  in  Massachusetts  at  the  sole 
will  of  the  Governor  and  Commander-in-Chief ;  nor  did 
this  single  year,  1866,  end  before  he  had  been  hurled 
headlong  from  his  military  office  with  cruel  oppro- 
brium and  privation.  "Enjoy  your  military  honors 
and  let  politics  alone,"  had  been  the  prudent  advice 
of  his  son;  but  to  one  of  the  father's  habits  and 
temperament  this  was  scarcely  possible.  During  the 
w\ar  he  had  applauded  the  President's  sagacious 
policy  like  any  civilian  voter;  and  after  Lincoln's 
death,  he,  like  Governor  Andrew,  deprecated  vindic- 
tiveness  in  dealing  with  the  South,  and  believed, 
with  all  generosity  for  the  negro,  that  the  lately 
rebellious  States  must  ultimately  depend  upon  their 
natural  leaders.  So  when  General  Benjamin  F. 
Butler,  of  Lowell,  a  man  of  methods  and  influence 
long  obnoxious,  swooped  upon  the  Essex  district  as 
a  candidate  for  Congress,  pledged  in  advance  to 
impeach  President  Johnson  and  make  things  hard  for 
the  rebels,  General  Schouler,  as  a  resident  voter  of 
that  district,  opposed  the  nomination,  and,  failing  to 
defeat  it,  announced  in  a  published  letter  his  inten- 
tion to  vote  against  him.  Butler  was  chosen,  how- 
ever, and  demanded  of  the  new  Governor  in  revenge 
the  displacement  of  the  adjutant-general.  Precipi- 
tately, perhaps  weakly.  Governor  Bullock  complied 
w4th  the  demand ;  Schouler  was  summarily  removed, 
and  in  the  correspondence  which  led  up  to  this  re- 
sult, the  Executive  stated,  as  the  sole  reason  for  such 
action,  that  each  public  officer  was  under  an  obli- 
gation to  vote  for  the  regular  candidate  of  the  party. 
Though  deeply  grieved  by  this  indignity.  General 


268  BIOGRAPHY. 

Schouler  was  not  ruined  or  wrecked  in  consequence. 
He  confided  tlie  whole  correspondence  to  his  son  in 
tlie  afternoon  of  December  14,  1866,  when  the  catas- 
trophe was  complete,  asking  him  to  break  the  news  to 
the  household  before  his  own  return  home  at  night. 
"The  only  one,"  says  this  letter,  "with  whom  I  have 
conferred,  and  who  knows  all  about  it,  is  Governor 
Andrew."  James  did  as  requested;  and  by  the  time 
the  husband  and  father  reached  Lynn  his  family 
received  him  with  the  cheering  consolation  that  a 
man  needs  in  such  moments.  James  proposed  at 
once  a  plan  for  their  office  connection,  more  especially 
in  the  war-claims  branch  of  his  practice;  and  the 
offer  was  accepted.  The  sympathy  of  the  adjutant- 
general's  warm  friends  also  expressed  itself,  as  soon 
as  the  situation  was  made  public,  in  a  circular  letter 
signed  by  many  of  the  most  eminent  citizens  of  the 
State,  which  Governor  Andrew  procured  and  headed, 
and  which  invited  him  to  write  a  history  of  Massa- 
chusetts in  the  war.  This  invitation  he  also  accepted, 
entering  at  once  upon  the  collection  of  materials,  but 
refusing  all  recompense  in  advance  of  publication, 
such  as  his  friends  in  their  kindness  were  prepared  to 
bestow. 

This  work,  comprised  in  two  large  volumes,  the 
labor  of  his  next  five  years  of  prolific  activity,  was 
the  perfection  of  his  noble  memorial  of  the  State's 
patriotic  action  and  record;  minute,  faithful,  and 
interesting,  as  critics  have  pronounced  it,  ranking 
among  the  best  of  local  war  histories,  and  necessarily 
engraving  the  author's  name  upon  each  living  page. 
The  first  volume  was  given  to  the  political  and  mili- 
tary development  of  Massachusetts  affairs  during 
those  momentous  years,  —  and  w^as  indeed  a  noble 
tribute  to  Governor  Andrew,  whose  untimely  death 


BIOGRAPHY.  269 

he  mourned  while  preparing  it;  the  second  grouped, 
in  a  more  statistical  form,  the  detailed  work  of  the 
different  cities  and  towns.  A  third  volume,  which 
General  Schouler  projected,  but  did  not  live  to  com- 
pose, would  have  narrated  the  tale  of  Massachusetts 
regiments  in  the  field,  and  its  basis  would  necessarily 
have  been  his  own  annual  reports.  Under  the  office 
partnership  he  had  formed  he  was  practically  his  own 
publisher;  and  the  Massachusetts  legislature,  to  its 
lasting  credit,  rendered  the  publication  a  pecuniary 
success  by  ordering  a  thousand  copies  of  each  volume 
for  State  distribution. 

The  office  partnership  of  father  and  son  —  though 
the  latter  alone  was  a  member  of  the  bar  —  worked 
out  its  expected  advantage,  in  the  union  of  high 
mental  qualities  and  practical  experience  in  which 
each  might  supplement  the  other;  at  the  same  time 
that  the  war-claims  business,  which  each  disliked, 
was  felt  to  be  a  dwindling  one,  and  other  resources 
were  exploited.  Besides  the  petty  bounty  and  pen- 
sion cases  came  in  various  large  miscellaneous  claims, 
to  which  the  late  adjutant-general's  skill  and  expe- 
rience were  applied  successfully.  Their  most  impor- 
tant work  together  lay  in  appl}dng  a  judicial 
correction  to  the  discretion  of  the  treasury  officials, 
hitherto  arbitrary.  James  had  made  a  careful  study 
of  the  history  and  jurisdiction  of  the  new  Court  of 
Claims,  which  an  exhaustive  article  from  his  pen  on 
"  Government  Claims  "  set  forth  about  this  time  in 
the  "American  Law  Review;"  and  to  that  tribunal 
at  Washington  the  Schoulers  brought  a  number  of 
petitions  on  behalf  of  war  claimants  who  had  been 
denied  relief  at  the  departments  by  what  appeared  to 
them  a  legal  misconstruction.     Of  these  the  Hosmer 


270  BIOGRAPHY. 

case,  the  sole  and  entire  triumph  of  this  partnership, 
is  the  most  remarkable ;  by  whose  adjudication  thou- 
sands of  our  early  volunteers,  all  through  the  loyal 
States,  reaped  the  just  benefit  of  their  bounty  contract 
with  the  President,  a  fair  share  of  the  Massachusetts 
men  interested  becoming  clients  of  the  firm  that 
tested  their  rights.  ^  The  father,  who  had  noted  this 
public  breach  of  contract  while  adjutant-general,  pre- 
sented the  points  to  his  son;  whereupon  the  latter 
prepared  with  all  legal  formality  this  test  case,  con- 
ducting and  arguing  it  at  Washington  in  person  on 
the  plaintiff's  behalf  before  the  Court  of  Claims,  and 
on  appeal  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States ;  for  to  both  of  those  tribunals  he  was  admitted 
in  1867  as  an  attorney.  The  Court  of  Claims  decided 
unanimously  in  his  favor ;  and  so  on  appeal  did  the 
Supreme  Court,  rendering  final  judgment  for  the 
claimant.  The  accounting  officers  of  the  treasury 
w^ere  at  once  disposed  to  submit;  but  the  appropria- 
tion required  for  this  class  of  claimants  throughout 
the  Union  was  so  great  that  they  waited  for  the 
further  sanction  of  Congress,  which  by  1872  was 
procured ;  pending  which  delay  the  Schoulers  brought 
similar  petitions  for  other  claimants  to  be  advanced  if 
needful.  Meanwhile,  upon  the  Attorney-General's 
advice,  the  government  settled  without  a  contest 
various  miscellaneous  suits  which  this  Boston  firm 
had  entered  in  the  Court  of  Claims  on  behalf  of 
clients.  The  Hosmer  case  was  in  fact  the  only 
soldiers'  test  case  arising  out  of  the  war  in  which 
the  Executive  department  was  positively  overruled. 

1  For  the  legal  issue  iriA^olved  in  this  celebrated  case,  which  arose 
upon  a  discrepancy  between  the  terms  of  the  President's  original  call 
for  loyal  volunteers  and  the  Act  of  July  22,  1861,  by  which  Congress 
legalized  that  call,  see  Hosmer  v.  United  States,  9  Wall.  432. 


BIOGRAPHY,  271 

There  was  one  more,  however,  whose  justice  our 
Boston  firm  was  equally  prepared  to  maintain,  —  that 
of  a  battalion  of  Massachusetts  artillery  pronounced 
"home-guards;"  but  a  statute  of  limitations  barred 
the  test  suit,  and  this  technical  defence  the  Attorney- 
General  gladly  interposed. 

Local  revolt  against  party  discipline  and  the  Execu- 
tive injustice  carried  General  Schouler  into  the  State^ 
senate  the  next  year  after  his  displacement  from 
office;  and  in  the  Massachusetts  legislature  of  1868 
he  advanced  his  high  public  reputation  by  constant 
and  capable  work.  Men  worked  more  dexterously 
in  these  modern  days  of  politics  than  in  old  Whig 
times  for  their  own  selfish  advancement;  or  perhaps 
he  would  have  mounted  higher.  A  second  revolt 
against  Butler  in  the  Essex  congressional  district 
followed  in  autumn  of  the  same  year,  strongly  organ- 
ized when  it  started;  and  William  Schouler  had 
modestly  hoped  that  it  meant  his  own  nomination  by 
the  independents;  but  the  cards  were  arranged  for 
another  candidate,  a  professional  man  of  eminent 
talent  and  principle,  but  personally  most  unpopular 
and  with  claims  to  a  residence  in  the  district  scarcely 
less  pretentious  than  those  of  Butler  himself.  In  the 
disastrous  canvass  which  followed,  the  son  stumped 
the  rural  towns  in  his  father's  place,  more  for  a 
brush  with  the  adversary  than  anything  else ;  but  the 
audacious  hero  of  New  Orleans,  who  put  almost  every 
other  speaker  of  the  opposition  upon  his  self-defence, 
bore  this  young  assailant  in  silence.  James  declined 
all  recompense  for  his  campaign  efforts,  and  received 
from  the  defeated  candidate  a  handsome  letter  of 
thanks ;  but  never  again  in  his  life  did  he  take  part 
in  a  political  canvass.  Not  very  long  after,  William 
Schouler  moved  from  Lynn,  from  the  Essex  district, 


272  BIOGRAPHY. 

and  his  seaside  cottage,  and  for  the  brief  remnant  of 
his  life  resided  with  his  wife  and  daughters  in 
(Jamaica  Plain)  West  Roxbury;  a  pleasant  suburb  of 
Boston,  which  has  since  been  absorbed  into  that 
populous  city. 

When  General  Grant  became  President  of  the 
United  States,  March  4,  1869,  James  Schouler  went 
to  Washington,  and  there  opened  a  branch  office  in 
temporary  partnership  with  his  father  and  his  friend 
Motte,  who  managed  the  Boston  concerns  in  an  office 
on  Kilby  Street,  while  he  attended  to  the  court 
practice  and  such  other  business  as  might  develop  at 
the  national  capital.  He  was  a  spectator  at  Grant's 
inauguration,  and  has  witnessed  almost  every  similar 
ceremony  since.  One  lives  at  our  national  seat  of 
government  without  residing  there;  and  as  our 
young  lawyer  had  journeyed  thither  much  of  former 
years,  with  a  batch  of  unffiiished  matters  requiring 
a  personal  visit,  the  traditions  of  this  famous 
place,  its  great  men  and  memories,  delighted  him 
even  more  than  its  easy  gayeties  and  free  social 
intercourse.  His  father,  too,  had  been  drawn  to 
Washington  in  earlier  years,  forming  there  many 
warm  acquaintances  who  received  the  son  with  kind- 
ness and  hospitality. 

But  there  were  other  serious  reasons  for  this 
change  of  abode  connected  with  the  literary  plans 
young  Schouler  was  now  forming.  He  had  struck 
already  into  the  career  of  a  professional  writer  while 
exploring  government  business  to  its  full  horizon  in 
articles  contributed  about  this  time  to  the  "  American 
Law  Review"  on  "Customs  and  Internal  Revenue," 
"Public  Lands,"  "Government  Loans,"  and  "Gov- 
ernment Contracts."     Calling,  about  1865,  upon  his 


BIOGRAPHY.  273 

office  neighbor  in  Boston,  the  venerable  Judge 
Redfield,  a  man  immersed  in  law-book  publications, 
to  solicit  some  copying  for  a  friend:  "it  is  not  a 
copyist  I  want,"  was  the  response,  "but  a  head." 
Out  of  that  conversation  grew  an  arrangement  under 
which  young  Schouler  did  some  annotation  at  his 
leisure  on  the  judge's  law  treatises;  and  out  of  that 
annotation  came  an  offer  from  the  judge's  law  pub- 
lishers, Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  of  Boston,  to  publish 
any  treatise  which  Schouler  might  write  on  a  good 
subject,  upon  the  same  favorable  terms  that  they 
gave  to  the  judge  himself.  After  casting  about  for 
a  topic,  Schouler  chose  the  "Domestic  Relations,"  — 
a  choice  at  once  approved  and  applauded.  This 
Washington  abode  our  author  thought  desirable  for 
the  tranquil  task  of  preparation;  and  most  of  that 
celebrated  text-book  was  composed  in  the  great  law 
library  of  the  Capitol  amid  fit  historical  surroundings 
which  inspired  him. 

Accident  turned  our  author,  while  this  literary 
labor  occupied  him,  to  the  new  commission  of  three 
for  codifying  the  United  States  statutes,  which 
Congress  determined  to  establish  in  place  of  an  old 
commission  which  had  done  nothing;  and  he  applied 
in  form  for  appointment  to  the  third  and  only  place 
not  bespoken  upon  this  commission.  "  It  is  the  only 
national  office,"  writes  our  author,  "for  which  I  ever 
applied  in  my  life;  and  I  applied  in  the  confidence 
that  it  was  intended  to  be  a  place  not  for  politicians, 
but  for  expert  lawyers  who  would  despatch  a  needful 
Avork."  The  Attorney-General  at  a  first  interview 
derided  to  his  face  the  presumption  of  one  so  young, 
"an  objection,"  suggested  one  of  the  Massachusetts 
delegation,  "which  will  diminish  every  day;"  but 
when  young   Schouler's    credentials   came   in,    from 

18 


274  BIOGRAPHY. 

Massachusetts  judges  and  lawyers  most  competent, 
some  of  whom  had  just  examined  the  advance -sheets 
of  his  new  book  which  was  going  through  the  press, 
this  Cabinet  adviser  became  convinced,  and  recom- 
mended the  name  strongly  to  the  President,  — though 
not  without  a  caution  to  the  applicant  that  local 
influences  were  likely  to  rule  New  England  men  out. 
And  so  it  proved;  for  the  President  sent  in  to  the 
Senate  the  list  of  commissioners  with  a  North  Carolina 
man  for  the  third* place. 

The  year  1870  proved  a  notable  one  in  our  author's 
chronology.  In  spring  he  argued  and  won  the 
Hosmer  case  in  the  Supreme  Court;  and  in  June, 
simultaneously  with  his  defeat  at  Washington  for 
the  codifying  commission,  his  first  law-book  was 
issued  from  the  press  in  Boston,  which  showed  that 
his  professional  skill  with  the  pen  needed  to  be  taken 
on  trust  no  longer.  Both  from  the  felicitous  mode  of 
treatment  and  the  choice  of  a  subject  —  for,  through 
all  the  changes  of  our  family  law,  no  comprehensive 
text -book  of  the  kind  had  been  in  the  market  for 
forty  years, —  Schouler's  "Domestic  Relations"  at 
once  took  possession  of  the  legal  field,  and  through 
five  large  editions  has  securely  occupied  it  ever  since. 
Reviewers  both  English  and  American  at  once  wel- 
comed it,  and  praised  its  clear,  accurate,  and  logical 
expression,  its  superior  literary  style,  and  a  certain 
freshness  of  treatment,  after  the  deductive  fashion, 
which  set  the  law  forth  as  lawyers  had  not  clearly 
understood  it  before.  So  far  as  a  portly  volume  of 
the  kind  may  be  thought  capable,  it  has  brought  to 
the  author  solid  fame  and  profit.  And  on  its  appear- 
ance one  Boston  revicAver  mentioned  it  as  something 
of  an  event  that  a  book  showing  such  maturity  of 


BIOGRAPHY.  275 

continuous   power    had  been  written    by   a   law^^er 
hardly  thirty  years  old. 

Nor  had  Schouler's  intimate  friends  failed  to 
observe  that  this  law  of  the  household  was  the  work 
not  only  of  a  young  man,  but  of  a  young  bachelor. 
For  such  a  subject,  notwithstanding,  he  had  quali- 
fied liimself  to  write  by  a  profound  thought  and  expe- 
rience quite  unusual.  His  intuitions  were  delicate, 
and  his  moral  sense  tested  the  family  relation  in  all 
of  its  vicissitudes.  He  had  in  fact  been  familiar  as 
an  own  son  in  other  households  Avhich  bore  trials 
besides  his  own.  With  women  and  children  our 
author's  gentle  nature  always  found  ready  expres- 
sion; he  has  interpreted  them  and  gained  their 
peculiar  love  without  apparent  effort;  and  so,  too, 
upon  men  and  women  much  his  seniors,  he  seems,  by 
our  narrative,  to  have  impressed  himself  more  readily 
than  upon  his  equals  in  age.  Many  a  woman,^  of  one 
social  grade  or  another,  has  confided  in  him  her 
secret,  and  been  set  on  the  right  road  rejoicing;  for 
in  confidences  he  is  honorable.  He  in  return,  as  he 
has  frequently  confessed,  owes  more  and  more  in  life 
to  woman's  sympathy;  for  men  are  apt  to  be  coarse 
or  unfeeling  towards  a  fellow-man's  infirmity. 

It  is  not  strange,  then,  that  a  man  like  this  was 
thought  to  have  had  some  unusual  experience  with 
the  fair  sex,  —  some  early  romantic  attachment  or  dis- 
appointment. Upon  all  such  points  our  author  pre- 
serves the  closest  reticence,  except  to  say  that  he 
was  never  engaged  in  his  life  save  to  the  woman 
he  married.  But  when  Du  Maurier's  two  novels 
were  discussed  not  long  ago  in  his  presence,  he 
expressed  his  strong  preference  for  "Peter  Ibbetson," 
and  pronounced  it  a  striking  psychological  study. 
"Love,"   he   remarked,   "has   immense   influence  in 


276  BIOGRAPHY. 

shaping  the  character  and  course  of  one's  life;  and 
so,  too,  have  the  illusions  of  love."  On  the  14th  of 
I  December,  1870,  our  young  author  married  Emily 
"  Fuller,  the  only  child  by  a  first  marriage  of  Asa  F. 
Cochran,  a  respected  merchant  of  Boston  and  New 
Orleans.  She  had  been  long  a  family  friend;  and  the 
match,  which  mutual  acquaintances  at  once  pro- 
nounced most  sensible,  proved  also  a  most  happy 
one.  With  quiet  refinement,  good  housekeeping 
traits,  and  good  judgment,  the  wife  has  aided  her 
husband  in  working  out  his  most  cherished  plans  of 
life ;  and  so  constant  and  intimate  since  marriage  has 
been  their  personal  companionship,  that  they  have 
rarely  had  occasion  to  correspond  by  letter.  One 
obvious  advantage  of  this  alliance  has  been  in  the 
opportunity  it  gave  our  author  to  pursue  unremunera- 
tive  work  without  tempting  him  to  ease  or  idleness. 

James  Schouler  brought  his  wife  to  Washington 
City  to  enjoy  the  social  pleasures  of  a  winter  season ; 
and  their  first  summer  was  passed  at  the  White 
Mountains.  For  serious  work,  he  began  the  new 
year,  1871,  with  the  first  issue  of  a  law  periodical 
at  the  national  capital,  styled  the  "United  States 
Jurist;"  an  enterprise  upon  which  he  concentrated 
his  energy  as  editor  during  the  next  three  years,  in 
connection  with  a  new  law-book  on  "  Personal  Prop- 
erty," which  he  presently  contracted  to  write  for  his 
Boston  publishers.  Issued  in  the  name  of  a  law- 
publishing  firm,  in  Washington,  at  this  time  pros- 
perous and  eminent,  the  "  Jurist "  was  in  reality  the 
project  of  its  editor  and  controlling  owner;  whose 
experiment  was  to  supply  a  magazine  for  the  American 
bar  of  a  national  cast,  an  exponent  of  the  best  thought 
and  intelligence  for  diffusion  among  the  legal  pro- 
fession of  the  whole  country.     Had  this  experiment 


BIOGRAPHY.  277 

proved  a  full  financial  success,  Schouler  would  prob- 
ably have  lived  in  Washington  and  confined  himself 
to  legal  literature  and  professional  pursuits  for  the 
rest  of  his  life.  He  had  already  become  fully  aware 
that  the  pen  must  be  the  chief  resource  of  his  future 
fame  and  usefulness ;  for  his  deafness  still  increased, 
and  the  ticking  of  the  watch  by  which  he  had  for 
several  years  tested  his  daily  hearing  ceased  to  be 
heard  at  all  at  either  ear  the  first  summer  he  lived  in 
Washington. 

General  Schouler  plied  his  o^vn  pen  busily  at  the 
Boston  office  during  the  interval  of  clients.  In  1871, 
besides  finishing  the  second  volume  of  his  war  history, 
he  Avrote  a  series  of  "Political  and  Personal  Recol- 
lections "  for  the  "Boston  Journal,"  —  articles  of 
great  merit,  which,  if  culled  in  extracts,  would  make 
an  entertaining  book.  But  their  irregular  publica- 
tion depressed  him ;  and  often  did  he  yearn  for  the 
control  of  some  weekly  paper,  rustic  and  homespun, 
which  in  some  quiet  town  he  might  edit  and  improve. 
"I  would  rather,"  he  writes  his  son,  "have  charge 
of  a  well-established  weekly  paper  than  be  a  field- 
marshal.  That  is  all  I  am  fit  for;  and  then  I  could 
spin  out  my  '  Recollections  '  as  easily  and  pleasantly 
as  a  spider  does  a  web."  In  other  moods,  he  longed 
for  a  restful  change,  and  to  see  old  Scotland  once 
more ;  in  fact,  he  needed  recreation  greatly,  and  the 
consulate  of  Glasgow  had  been  the  unrealized  dream 
of  ten  years.  One,  however,  who  dwells  upon  his 
reminiscences  has  ceased  to  belong  to  the  present; 
and  for  any  political  appointment  he  was  too  much 
out  of  touch  with  the  national  politics  that  ruled  the 
hour.  But  his  pecuniary  affairs  gained  steadily;  and 
when  in  October  his  last  promissory  note  was  taken 


278  BIOGRAPHY. 

up  at  the  bank,  "I  shall  henceforth,"  he  said,  "keep 
my  hands  from  signing  and  borrowing  as  I  always 
have  done  from  picking  and  stealing." 

When  the  new  year  1872  began.  General  Schouler 
retired  from  his  office  partnership  upon  an  annuity 
whose  terms  included  his  wife  and  daughters ;  at  the 
same  time  retaining  certain  interests  in  a  firm  which 
once  more  aimed  to  be  purely  professional.  His  son 
John  was  a  party  to  this  arrangement;  and  both  the 
brothers,  while  wishing  their  father  to  enjoy  the  rest 
he  needed,  urged  him  to  devote  his  remaining  activity 
to  the  third  volume  of  his  History,  for  which  the 
public  was  waiting;  or,  if  he  did  more  than  this,  to 
prepare  a  second  series  of  his  "Recollections,"  which 
had  not  as  yet  extended  beyond  the  Whig  era.  But 
his  first  leisure  at  home  he  gave  to  sorting  out  and 
arranging  the  large  correspondence  of  his  life;  and 
then  came  the  summons  of  the  Presidential  campaign 
of  this  year,  which  stirred  him  like  a  trumpet's  call. 
Joining  once  more  the  independents  who  called  for 
magnanimity  to  the  South  and  uncorrupt  administra- 
tion, he  was  placed  as  a  Presidential  elector  on  the 
liberal  Republican  ticket  of  his  district.  When  at 
Cambridge,  during  early  autumn,  and  speaking  in 
the  open  air,  at  one  of  these  political  meetings,  he 
took  a  severe  cold,  and  was  soon  confined  to  his 
chamber  in  consequence.  His  disease,  an  affection 
of  the  heart  and  liver,  assumed  presently  a  dangerous 
type.  The  doctors  who  were  called  for  consultation 
told  him,  as  requested,  his  exact  condition;  and 
when  they  informed  him  that  he  had  but  a  few  days 
to  live,  he  met  the  announcement  with  fortitude  and 
resignation.  Conscious  to  the  last,  he  now  took 
leave  of  family  and  personal  friends  with  a  cheering 
and  affectionate  word  to  each.     His  wife  and  sisters 


BIOGRAPHY,  279 

attended  the  sick  chamber  devotedly,  and  all  of  his 
children  were  present  except  John,  the  naval  officer, 
who  arrived  from  his  station  at  Key  West  too  late, 
and  to  whom  the  father  dictated  a  farewell  letter. 
Strong  in  the  Christian  faith,  our  hero  gave  himself 
humbly  as  a  child  to  eternity,  and  his  soul  ebbed 
gently  out  from  its  mortal  frame  like  a  receding  tide. 
General  Schouler  died  on  the  24th  of  October,  1872. 
His  funeral  was  simple  as  he  wished  it,  and  the  pomp 
of  a  military  funeral  tendered  by  the  State  was 
declined.  Family,  relatives,  neighbors,  and  personal 
friends  thronged  the  little  Episcopal  church  at 
Jamaica  Plain  without  ceremony ;  and  the  two  vener- 
able pastors  of  his  early  manhood,  whom  we  have 
mentioned,  conducted  the  services,  after  which  his 
remains  were  borne  to  Forest  Hills  Cemetery,  their 
last  resting-place. 

"  No  one  who  ever  really  knew  him  could  harbor  a 
feeling  of  enmity;"  "Few  men,  with  such  decided 
opinions,  had  fewer  personal  enemies,"  —  such  were 
the  spontaneous  public  expressions  which  recalled 
General  Schouler' s  genuine  goodness  and  the  many 
high  and  noble  qualities  of  his  character.  In  Boston 
a  movement,  organized  soon  after  his  death,  resulted 
in  the  erection  of  a  handsome  monument  at  Forest 
Hills,  to  which  friends,  high  and  low,  and  men  of  all 
politics  subscribed;  the  first  donation  of  all  coming 
from  Boston's  leading  lady  of  society,  Mrs.  Harrison 
Gray  Otis,  who  feelingly  expressed  her  sense  of  the 
manifold  virtues  which  had  impressed  her  while  in 
constant  communication  with  him  on  behalf  of  the 
women  workers  of  Boston  during  the  whole  Civil 
War.  Upon  this  monument,  chaste  in  its  whole 
detail,  is  chiselled  a  fair  medallion  profile  of  the 
adjutant-general's  face,  with  its  regular  Scotch  feat- 


280  BIOGRAPHY, 

ures.^  He  was  a  very  handsome  and  striking  man, 
especially  when  in  full  military  uniform;  being 
six  feet  or  more  in  height,  well  proportioned,  and 
wearing  a  becoming  dignity  on  serious  occasions, 
though  ready  at  most  other  times  to  beam  out  with 
friendliness  and  good-nature.  He  was  a  genial  and 
engaging  man ;  a  good  story-teller,  with  a  great  and 
varied  fund  of  personal  experience  among  interesting 
men  and  events  to  draw  upon ;  a  well-read  and  com- 
panionable man  for  any  social  gathering,  since  all 
human  nature  interested  him.  If  he  ever  came  short 
of  full  social  expression,  it  was  chiefly  from  mod- 
est pride  and  the  consciousness  of  a  penury  which 
chilled  his  generous  impulses  and  made  him  feel 
most  nearly  allied  to  the  poor  and  humble.  And 
yet,  under  his  son's  skilful  management,  —  what  with 
his  literary  property  and  his  share  in  fees  of  the 
Hosmer  claims,  which  were  now  being  paid,  —  he  left 
at  his  death  an  estate  more  nearly  approaching  afflu- 
ence than  he  had  possessed  during  most  of  his  life. 
Entering  quite  early  upon  manhood's  responsibilities, 
he  acquired  a  maturity  of  expression  which  perhaps 
was  heightened  by  wearing  English  side-whiskers; 
yet  he  was  but  fifty-seven  years  old  when  he  died. 

Though  foreign-born,  William  Schouler  loved 
Massachusetts  to  the  core,  and  knew  well  its  people, 
civic  or  rural.  In  last  years  his  heart  recalled  many 
of  his  earlier   friendships;   he   revisited    Marshfield 

1  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  there  is  neither  statue  nor  oil  painting 
of  General  William  Schouler,  as  he  was  familiarly  seen  and  remem- 
bered ;  but  some  excellent  photographs,  which  were  taken  during  the 
Civil  War  and  later,  are  still  preserved  by  his  children.  An  oil  paint- 
ing by  the  celebrated  artist  Alexander,  now  owned  in  the  family,  was 
made  when  Schouler  was  quite  a  young  man  ;  and  tradition  says  that 
the  likeness  is  excellent ;  but  there  is  little  about  the  picture  that  his 
children  or  the  later  public  can  recognize. 


BIOGRAPHY.  281 

and  the  Webster  family,  and  the  grave  of  their 
immortal  ancestor;  nor  did  the  casual  coincidence 
escape  comment  at  his  funeral  that  he  died  on  the 
twentieth  anniversary  of  the  death  of  his  first  great 
civil  leader.  But,  with  impulses  that  always  warmly 
responded  to  the  highest  ideals  of  public  duty,  he  to 
the  last  revered  in  memory  John  A.  Andrew  above 
all  others.  It  was  his  dying  wish  that  the  Execu- 
tive Order,  which  recognized  his  associated  service 
to  the  Commonwealth,!  should  be  graven  upon  his 
monument ;  and  among  his  private  papers,  after  death, 
that  order,  as  transmitted  to  him,  was  found  care- 
fully preserved,  together  with  its  original  draft  in 
Governor  Andrew's  own  handwriting. 


VIII. 

1873-1896. 

The  death  of  husband  and  father  was  the  first 
great  bereavement  of  the  household  we  have  described ; 
and,  oppressed  with  grief,  James  Schouler  prepared, 
on  his  return  to  Washington  soon  after  the  funeral, 
to  detach  the  strand  of  two  closely  interwoven  lives 
which  death  had  separated,  and,  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
three,  to  adjust  his  own  career  to  new  conditions. 
With  the  inducement  of  an  important  trust  from  his 
maternal  uncle,,  he  presently  decided  to  give  up  his 
Washington  connections  and  make  Boston  once  more 
the  centre  of  such  professional  activity  as  remained 
to  him.  Fate  hereelf  seemed  to  close  the  portal 
upon  the  past,  for  very  soon  after  General  Schouler's 

1  See  supra,  p.  266. 


282  BIOGRAPHY. 

funeral  came  the  great  fire  in  Boston;  and  its  flames, 
in  their  devastating  progress,  licked  up  and  levelled 
the  solid  granite  building  in  Kilby  Street  where  their 
office  was  situated,  consuming  the  father's  desk  with 
its  contents  and  his  own,  and  all  the  old  papers  and 
vouchers  in  fact  of  his  prior  professional  life. 

The  winter  of  1873-74  saw  a  last  family  reunion 
at  West  Roxbury,  while  James  settled  finally  his 
father's  estate;  and  in  the  spring  of  1874  his  wife 
and  younger  sister  went  to  Germany,  where  he  joined 
them  for  a  summer  tour  through  northern  Italy, 
Switzerland,  and  France.  This  was  a  first  and 
delightful  experience  abroad  for  all  of  them;  and, 
returning  in  the  fall  of  that  year,  they  prepared  for 
housekeeping  in  Boston  apartments,  where  the 
mother.  General  Schouler's  widow,  was  soon  to  join 
them.  But  while  she  visited  in  the  meantime  her 
son  William  in  Syracuse,  her  delicate  frame  suc- 
cumbed to  pneumonia,  and  she  died  there,  after  a 
brief  illness,  on  the  1st  of  November,  1874.  James 
had  just  time,  when  summoned,  to  hasten  to  her 
bedside  and  receive  her  smile  of  recognition  before 
she  expired.  Her  remains  were  laid  by  the  side  of 
the  illustrious  husband  who  had  owed  immeasurably 
to  her  devotion;  and  upon  her  gravestone  it  is  fitly 
inscribed  that  "her  children  arise  up  and  call  her 
blessed." 

Not  long  after  this  full  orphanage  of  the  children, 
sons  and  daughters  settled  each  in  separate  homes, 
affectionate  still  through  life,  and  mindful  of  the  lov- 
ing and  tender  influences  which  had  brought  them 
up  united.  William,  married  previously  in  1871  to 
Sophia  B.  Heaton  of  Brooklyn,  has  served  for  many 
years  as  faithful  rector  of  the  Episcopal  Church  at 
Elkton,  Maryland;  John,  who  in  1881  married  Hope 


BIOGRAPHY.  283 

Day  of  Catskill,  has  risen  honorably  through  succes- 
sive grades  in  his  naval  profession,  and  with  a  high 
rank  in  the  active  list  of  commanders,  serves  at 
present  as  executive  officer  on  the  flag-ship  of  our 
North  Atlantic  squadron;  Harriet,  now  a  widow, 
married  in  1875  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  G.  Allen  of 
Boston,  an  Episcopal  clergyman;  and  Fanny,  who 
was  united  in  1880  to  James  H.  Williams,  a  pros- 
perous banker  in  Bellows  Falls,  Vermont,  died  in 
1891.  Among  the  marriages  of  General  Schouler's 
five  sons  and  daughters,  those  of  James  and  John 
have  borne  no  offspring. 

As  incidental  to  his  withdrawal  from  the  national 
capital,  —  a  city  just  emerging  from  a  grub  or 
chrysalis  condition  into  its  modern  splendor,  and 
fascinating  him  greatly  with  its  warm  friendships  and 
cordial  social  life,  —  our  young  author  regretfully 
abandoned  the  experiment  of  his  "United  States 
Jurist,"  whose  last  quarterly  number  was  issued  for 
October,  1873.  The  circulation  and  influence  of 
this  periodical  had  steadily  increased,  but  not  rapidly 
enough  to  warrant  him  in  expending  upon  it  longer 
both  capital  and  brain- work.  During  the  three  years 
of  its  existence  under  his  editorial  direction,  a  large 
share  of  its  material  was  from  his  own  pen  and  those 
of  his  two  Boston  partners;  but  among  voluntary 
contributors  who  encouraged  the  enterprise  were 
lawyers  of  renown,  like  Justice  Miller  of  the  Supreme 
Bench,  Professor  Emory  Washburn  of  Cambridge, 
William  Beach  Lawrence,  and,  chief  among  all  edito- 
rial friends,  the  versatile  John  William  Wallace,  re- 
porter of  the  Supreme  Court  decisions  and  President 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Historical  Society,  —  a  warm- 
hearted man  whose  thoughtful  attentions,  once  begun, 


284  BIOGRAPHY. 

ceased  only  with  his  life.  With  reference  to  James 
Schouler's  retirement  in  1873  appeared  an  article  in 
a  Philadelphia  paper  from  the  pen  doubtless  of  this 
last-named  gentleman,  from  which  the  following  is 
an  extract :  "  We  regret  this  retirement  because  we 
have  thought  that  we  could  see  in  the  '  United  States 
Jurist, '  of  which  Mr.  Schouler  was  the  founder  and 
sole  conductor,  the  more  than  seminal  principle  of 
a  thoroughly  independent  and  valuable  law  journal. 
It  began  with  no  flourish  of  trumpets  and  no  external 
exhibitions,  perhaps  rather  unimpressively.  But  we 
early  observed  in  it  the  marks  of  an  original,  fearless, 
and  thoughtful  editorship;  and  of  a  pen  guided  at 
once  by  high  legal  attainments  and  a  very  careful 
consideration  and  analysis  of  every  subject  which  it 
passed  upon." 

Two  incidents,  one  pleasant  and  one  unpleasant, 
are  still  remembered  in  the  annals  of  this  youthful 
lucubration.  The  pleasant  one  relates  to  the  famous 
New  York  advocate,  Charles  O' Conor,  by  this  time 
an  elderly  man,  who  was  an  early  subscriber  to  the 
"Jurist,"  and  liked  it  so  well  that,  when  renewing 
his  subscription,  in  1872,  he  paid  for  five  years  in 
advance.  When  the  magazine  was  discontinued,  a 
check  to  refund  the  proper  balance  was  sent  to  him ; 
but  he  never  transmitted  it  through  the  bank  for  pay- 
ment ;  meaning  apparently  to  signify  that  the  amount 
might  stand  as  his  donation  towards  the  concern. 
The  unpleasant  incident  relates  to  a  change  in 
methods  of  legal  instruction  which  began  at  the 
Harvard  Law  School  while  the  "Jurist"  was  pub- 
lished. Mr.  Schouler  had  made  "book  reviews  "  a 
special  feature  of  his  magazine,  giving  full  lists  of 
new  law-books  and  preparing  notices,  whether  edito- 
rial copies  were  sent  him  or  not.     In  reviewing  two 


BIOGRAPHY,  285 

volumes  of  "Selected  Cases,"  issued  upon  the  new 
method,  he  took  issue  with  the  "American  Law 
Review"  concerning  their  merits  as  compared  with 
legal  text-books;  writing  boldly,  and  even  sharply, 
under  a  loyal  warmth  to  some  of  Harvard's  former 
professors  —  though  he  had  never  attended  personally 
any  law  school  whatever  for  his  own  instruction  — 
and  for  vindicating  a  class  of  legal  writers  among 
'  whom  he  belonged,  and  who  seemed  marked  for  dis- 
paragement; but  otherwise  without  personal  bias 
against  any  one.  But  he  soon  found  to  his  surprise 
that  he  had  given  offence  in  other  high  quarters  of 
his  University,  on  an  issue  which  he  had  supposed 
interested  men  of  the  legal  profession  alone;  and 
chiefly  for  that  reason  he  resigned  in  1873  the  class 
secretaryship  which  he  had  held  with  the  favor  and 
confidence  of  his  classmates  for  eight  years. 

Boston  now  becomes  once  more  the  regular  seat  of 
Mr.  Schouler's  professional  labors  in  a  quiet  routine, 
for  the  next  twenty  years  or  more,  which  was  chiefly 
varied  by  brief  winter  excursions  to  Washington  and 
a  summer  life  among  the  mountains.  Abandoning, 
as  hard  destiny  compelled  him,  all  further  ambition 
of  forensic  triumphs,  and  of  course  cutting  loose  from 
war  claims,  he  adjusted  his  professional  work  to  the 
standard  of  chamber  practice,  chiefly  concerning  him- 
self for  the  future  with  the  settlement  and  care  of 
estates  in  probate.  When  in  1875  new  and  commo- 
dious buildings  went  up  in  the  burnt  Boston  district, 
he  moved  into  one  of  them  near  the  new  post-office, 
and  60  Congress  Street  still  remains  his  most  con- 
venient mail  address,  wherever  he  may  personally 
be.  And  by  that  time  dissolving  all  partnership 
relations,  he  retained  Mr.  Motte  still  as  a  constant 


286  BIOGRAPHY. 

office  neighbor  and  companion.  Thus  located  in 
his  own  business,  Mr.  Schouler  steadily  pursued  his 
literary  plans,  under  succeeding  contracts  with  his 
publishers. 

Of  his  well-known  law  treatises  which  followed 
"Domestic  Relations,"  the  first  volume  of  "Personal 
Property  "  was  issued  while  he  tarried  in  Washington 
in  1872;  and  the  latter  subject  of  investigation 
opened  so  broad  a  field  of  legal  study  that  a  second 
volume  (chiefly  upon  "  Gifts  and  Sales  ")  followed  in 
1876 ;  a  third  on  "  Bailments  including  Carriers  "  in 
1880 ;  "  Executors  and  Administrators  "  in  1883 ; 
and  "Wills"  in  1887.  "Husband  and  Wife,"  an 
expansion  of  "Domestic  Relations,"  went  through 
the  press  in  1882.  Six  of  these  seven  volumes  have 
sold  rapidly,  passing  into  new  editions  which  have 
cost  much  editorial  labor  in  bringing  the  court  devel- 
opment of  decisions  down  to  date ;  but  with  each  new 
edition  carefully  revised  and  improved  by  the  author's 
personal  labor.  This  author's  law-books  have  long 
had  a  wide  national  reputation ;  they  are  recognized 
in  the  courts  as  standard  authorities  on  the  various 
subjects  treated;  and  written,  as  they  are,  in  a  clear, 
lucid  style,  applying  sound  judgment  with  a  wealth 
of  learning,  these  books  serve  well  the  use  of  law- 
students  or  of  the  practising  lawyer  who  wishes  to 
freshen  himself  upon  elementary  principles.  Besides 
these  creative  labors,  Mr.  Schouler  edited  "Story 
on  Bailments  "  soon  after  his  return  to  Boston;  and 
while  doing  so  perceived  that  simpler  principle  of 
classification  which  he  applied  afterwards  to  his  own 
work  on  the  subject,  and  which,  as  taught  since  in 
good  law  schools,  is  rapidly  superseding  the  nomen- 
clature of  Lord  Holt  and  the  writers  who  followed 
his  primitive  exposition  of  the  subject.     Our  author 


BIOGRAPHY.  287 

bore  also  an  important  part  in  the  preparation  of 
"Myers'  Federal  Decisions,"  and  has  contributed 
various  articles  to  English  and  American  law  maga- 
zines, most  of  which  relate  to  professional  studies  in 
connection  with  his  own  text-books.  Under  the 
pressure  of  other  important  work  to  be  presently 
mentioned,  he  has  firmly  declined  of  late  years  to 
take  up  new  professional  subjects,  though  receiving 
tempting  offers  from  law  publishers  in  all  our  leading 
cities;  and,  in  fact,  feeling  the  need  of  curtailing 
such  labors,  he  cancelled  six  years  ago  a  contract  for 
a  new  legal  text-book  which  he  had  already  entered 
into. 

But  Mr.  Schouler  is  far  more  widely  and  popularly 
known  by  his  historical  work  than  by  these  purely 
professional  productions.  His  successful  occupation 
of  this  second  field  furnishes  quite  a  remarkable 
instance  of  versatile  literary  industry ;  for  while  most 
historians  have  found  historical  subjects  grave  enough 
to  absorb  their  most  serious  study,  he,  to  quote  his 
own  words,  made  history  "  the  diversion  from  literary 
toil  more  dull  and  mechanical,  —  in  other  words,  a 
literary  law;)^er's  recreation."  From  our  famous 
Presidential  campaign  of  1860,  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  intensely  interested  him  just  as  he  had  reached 
majority,  our  author's  early  diaries  exhibit  him  as 
exploring  with  enthusiasm  American  politics  and  the 
writings  of  our  early  statesmen  in  the  midst  of  his 
vigorous  preparations  for  the  bar.  Soon  after  return- 
ing from  the  seat  of  war  he  made  a  minute  sketch  of 
Massachusetts  colonial  history  in  a  picturesque  paper 
entitled  "Sir  Henry  Vane,  Governor,"  which  was 
sent  to  the  "Atlantic  Monthly,"  but  returned  to  him 
rejected.     That  essay  has  long  since  disappeared  from 


288  BIOGRAPHY. 

the  author's  manuscripts ;  but  in  his  diary,  of  Novem- 
ber, 1864,  he  wrote  soon  after  his  rebuff:  "I  shall 
now  betake  myself  in  earnest  to  my  historical  studies, 
with  a  view  of  writing  in  time  some  book  on  our  con- 
stitutional history,  —  an  idea  which  I  have  secretly 
cherished  a  twelvemonth  or  more."  In  1866  he  pre- 
pared from  an  original  study  of  the  State  departmjent 
volumes  an  article  upon  "  Our  Diplomacy  during  the 
Rebellion,"  which  was  published  in  the  "North 
American  Review ; "  it  drew  from  Secretary  Seward 
himself  an  autograph  letter  which  to  our  young  author 
was  a  great  encouragement.  Pursuing  these  diplo- 
matic studies  later  to  the  final  tragedy  of  "  Maximilian 
in  Mexico,"  after  the  French  had  been  forced  to 
withdraw,  he  wrote  another  magazine  article  on 
that  subject;  but  this  failed  once  more  of  accep- 
tance. Notwithstanding  these  literary  discourage- 
ments, Schouler  pursued  the  consecutive  national 
studies  which  he  had  already  taken  up  in  earnest; 
and  even  while  composing  his  "  Domestic  Relations  " 
at  Washington  he  was  examining  with  interest  the 
memorable  sites  about  him  and  making  comprehen- 
sive notes  of  the  writings  of  Washington,  Madison, 
Hamilton,  and  Jefferson  during  the  era  which  next 
succeeded  our  American  revolution.  His  wish,  now 
cherished,  was  to  begin  his  narrative  where  the 
venerable  George  Bancroft  had  seemingly  laid  down 
his  pen,  and  be  the  recognized  historian  to  supply  the 
connecting  link  between  our  American  Revolution 
and  the  Civil  War.  He  knew  of  no  other  scholar, 
native  or  foreign,  who  had  projected  such  a  work. 
Indeed,  during  the  very  same  year  (1870)  that  his 
first  law-book,  the  "Domestic  Relations,"  was  pub- 
lished, we  find  that  he  completed  the  first  draft  of  an 
introductory  chapter  to  such  a  history,  and  then  laid 


BIOGRAPHY.  289 

the  manuscript  aside  for  the  "  United  States  Jurist, " 
thinking  to  concentrate  his  talents  upon  law  litera- 
ture ^  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  All  was  encouraging 
and  hopeful  here ;  but  as  to  literary  fame  and  useful- 
ness outside  of  the  law  nearly  all  was  discouragement. 

After  the  "  Jurist "  experiment  had  been  abandoned 
in  1873  Schouler  took  up  once  more  in  earnest  the 
suspended  project  of  writing  a  United  States  history. 
His  Boston  law  publishers,  whose  range  of  general 
literature  was  extensive,  were  well  disposed  to  sus- 
tain the  venture ;  but  as  publishers  already  of  George 
Bancroft,  whose  future  literary  plans  were  uncertain, 
they  felt  themselves  unable  to  decide  at  once  in  his 
favor,  and  counselled  delay.  Their  suspense  con- 
tinued thus  for  years;  in  early  1879  the  author 
made  proposals  to  another  leading  Boston  firm  which 
declined  to  assume  his  undertaking;  and  dreading 
the  ordeal  of  publishers  elsewhere,  strangers  to  him, 
with  a  bulk  of  manuscript  which  must  be  finished 
before  being  considered  at  all,  he  went  at  once  to 
his  former  "Jurist"  publishers  at  Washington,  the 
Morrisons,  and  found  them  glad  enough  to  stand 
sponsors  for  the  history  under  a  most  liberal  publish- 
ing contract.  With  this  spur  to  exertion,  he  now 
completed  his  composition  of  the  first  two  volumes, 
and  they  went  forth  to  the  world. 

This  publishing  connection  did  not  prove  alto- 
gether advantageous  for  bringing  such  a  work  into 
notice ;  and,  to  add  to  the  author's  chagrin,  his  Boston 
law  publishers.  Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  announced 
themselves  at  final  liberty  to  take  up  the  history 
just  when  it  was  too  late.  One  of  the  Morrison 
brothers  died  soon  after  the  first  volume  was  pub- 

1  See  author's  original  preface  to  History  of  the  United  States, 
vol.  i. 

19 


290  BIOGRAPHY, 

lislied;  and  the  survivor,  though  fairly  fulfilling 
to  the  best  of  his  ability,  was  hampered  in  pushing 
the  work  as  it  deserved.  At  the  same  time  he  held 
tenaciously  to  his  contract  rights  until  other  embar- 
rassments forced  him  by  1890  to  sell  out,  shortly 
after  the  fourth  volume  was  issued.  From  among 
various  large  firms  in  the  great  cities  who  were  now 
ready  to  assume  publication,  the  author  chose  Dodd, 
Mead  &  Co.,  of  New  York,  whose  services  had  been 
tendered  him  for  years,  upon  their  own  discovery  of 
the  merits  of  his  undertaking;  and  this  choice  he  has 
never  regretted. 

Parallel  with  his  legal  text-books,  the  "  History  of 
the  United  States,  under  the  Constitution,"  in  five 
volumes,  was  prepared  and  issued  by  our  author, 
as  follows:  volume  i.  ("Rule  of  Federalism,"  1789- 
1801)  in  1880;  volume  ii.  ("Jefferson  Republicans," 
1801-17)  in  1882;  volume  iii.  ("Era  of  Good  Feel- 
ing," 1817-31)  in  1885;  volume  iv.  ("Whigs  and 
Democrats,"  1831-47)  in  1889;  volume  v.  ("Free- 
Soil  Controversy,"  1847-61)  in  1891.  After  this 
completion  of  the  extensive  narrative  under  his 
original  plan.  Dr.  Schouler  next  gave  his  personal 
attention  to  a  revised  edition  of  the  whole  work 
which  comprised  nearly  three  thousand  pages;  he 
made  entirely  new  plates  for  the  first  two  volumes, 
which  he  largely  re-wrote;  and  here  his  facile  pen 
has  rested.  A  life  of  "  Thomas  Jefferson "  by  our 
author  in  the  "  Makers  of  America  Series  "  deserves 
a  favorable  mention. 

In  recalling  those  ten  earlier  years  of  anxious 
authorship  and  depression,  while  the  merits  of  his 
monumental  work  gained  with  the  public  but  gradual 
recognition,  and  there  was  little  business  energy  or 
advertising  to  bring  the  work  forward  while  it  stole 


BIOGRAPHY.  291 

into  scholarly  notice,  our  modest  author  loves  to  ^ 
recall  some  of  those  influential  men  whose  sponta- 
neous commendations  cheered  him  onward  in  his 
task.  There  was  George  Bancroft,  first  of  all,  who 
had  at  length  concluded  to  leave  the  field  open;  the 
late  Alexander  Johnston,  an  American  historical 
professor  and  scholar  of  great  promise,  who  wrote  the 
first  strongly  laudatory  notice  of  the  earliest  volume 
and  inserted  it  in  the  New  York  "Nation;  "  the  cul- 
tured George  William  Curtis;  John  Austin  Stevens 
of  the  "Magazine  of  American  History;"  Samuel 
Eliot  of  Boston,  Professors  Mac  Vane  of  Harvard, 
Sumner  of  Yale,  and  Herbert  B.  Adams  and  Jameson 
of  the  Johns  Hopkins,  together  with  the  President 
of  this  latter  institution.  Most  of  these  gentlemen 
signified  their  appreciation  by  personal  correspondence 
and  in  other  ways;  and  some  writers  for  the  press, 
whose  names  are  unknown,  deserve  also  a  mention. 
In  the  course  of  fifteen  years  many  gratifying  letters 
have  come  to  the  author  from  characteristic  though 
less  distinguished  readers:  one,  for  instance,  from 
an  old  Baptist  minister  in  the  Rocky  Mountain 
region,  who  says  that  the  only  change  of  words  he 
could  wish  in  the  whole  work  would  be  to  call  the 
Mormons  "rascals;"  and  another,  which  came  a  few 
weeks  since  from  the  managing  editor  of  a  large 
Philadelphia  newspaper,  who  expresses  his  grateful 
pleasure  after  a  "fourth  perusal"  of  the  five  volumes. 
"There  are  many  persons,"  observes  our  historian, 
"who  will  flatter  you  to  your  bent  after  a  cursory 
glance  at  what  you  have  solidly  written;  but  when 
you  find  one  who  has  read  from  cover  to  cover  and 
then  praises,  you  may  feel  that  he  is  your  friend." 

We  shall   not  here  undertake   to  cull   from  tes- 
timonials to  the  merits  of  Schouler's  masterly  work 


292  BIOGRAPHY. 

which  are  contained  in  the  publisher's  portly  circulars ; 
but  we  borrow  from  two  tributes  only  which  have 
reached  the  author  within  the  past  twelve  months, 
and  of  which  the  publishers  have  taken  no  cogni- 
zance. The  first  is  from  a  personal  letter  written  by 
the  kindly  and  accomplished  President  Gilman  of  the 
Johns  Hopkins  University:  "You  have  won  unique 
distinction,  not  likely,  I  think,  to  be  taken  from  you 
by  subsequent  investigators.  The  sense  of  proportion 
which  has  governed  your  work  is  valuable ;  but  the 
candor  and  fairness  and  justice  which  you  manifest, 
in  the  discussion  of  critical  periods  and  of  influential 
characters,  give  it  even  higher  importance."  The 
second  we  quote  from  an  article  which  appeared  in 
a  New  England  weekly  from  the  pen  of  a  good 
literary  scholar  and  clergyman  in  an  article  devoted 
to  a  comparative  estimate  of  American  historians  now 
living:  "Mr.  Schouler's  work  is,  without  question, 
the  most  complete  picture  of  the  nation  from  its 
founding  to  the  Civil  War.  It  is  a  rapid,  straight- 
forward narrative,  seldom  stopping  to  quote  authori- 
ties, but  accurate  in  facts,  and  possessed  of  the 
highest  historical  genius.  The  narrative  flows  on, 
when  well  under  way,  with  a  marvellous  richness  and 
eloquence,  midway  between  the  general  and  the  par- 
ticular, the  narrative  and  the  philosophic  methods. 
As  an  authority,  it  is  going  to  stand  prominent. 
But  what  it  is  to  be  most  valued  for  is  the  fact  that 
the  author  is  possessed  of  a  vast  synthetic  power:  a 
real  economic  and  political  philosophy  makes  the 
facts  he  relates  bear  their  true  relative  position  and 
force.  There  are  instances  of  special  pleading  as  he 
reaches  periods  near  his  own,  and  these  are  to  be 
regretted;  but,  on  the  whole,  Mr.  Schouler  has 
given  us  a  brilliant,  vigorous,  strong,  pithy,  stimu- 


BIOGRAPHY,  293 

lating  history.  He  is  never  tempted  to  turn  aside  to 
lengthy,  disproportionate  disquisition,  but  holds  his 
subject  and  himself  marvellously  well  in  hand.  He 
is  a  condensed,  pruned  Macaulay." 

While  thus  occupied  with  a  twofold  sedentary  task 
which  must  naturally  have  increased  in  tendency  his 
social  exclusion  while  broadening  his  literary  fame, 
Mr.  Schouler  received  quite  unexpectedly  an  invita- 
tion which  opened  to  him  a  new  field  of  usefulness 
most  welcome  and  opportune.  Judge  Edmund  H. 
Bennett,  a  man  of  kindred  tastes  and  experience  in 
legal  composition,  offered  him  in  the  summer  of  1883 
the  post  of  lecturer  on  "Bailments,"  which  had  just 
become  vacant,  at  the  new  Law  School  of  Boston 
University,  of  which  he  was  Dean.  The  place  was 
provisionally  accepted  by  our  author;  and,  standing 
before  a  class  of  young  men  to  expound  a  subject 
already  familiar  to  him,  he  found  himself  at  once 
among  fresh  and  highly  congenial  surroundings. 
"The  boys  like  you,"  said  the  judicious  dean  after 
the  first  lecture  had  concluded;  and  he  added 
"Domestic  Relations  "  to  the  new  lecturer's  subjects, 
and  made  his  engagement  permanent  upon  the  Boston 
University  staff. 

With  this  advantageous  start  as  a  professional 
instructor  and  lecturer,  Mr.  Schouler  found  by  1886 
a  similar  position  for  a  few  weeks'  employment  each 
year  at  the  National  University  Law  School  at 
Washington,  with  which  the  famous  Justice  Miller 
and  a  strong  personal  friend  of  the  author  at  the  dis- 
trict bar  were  already  connected.  Annual  excursions 
to  Washington,  such  as  he  had  already  been  taking 
for  historical  study,  found  henceforth  a  new  motive ; 
and  a  few  weeks  of  leisure  still  remaining  to  him  in 


294  BIOGRAPHY. 

midwinter  and  the  early  spring,  application  was  next 
made  in  1889  by  friends  on  his  behalf  at  the  famous 
Law  School  of  Columbia  College,  New  York,  where 
new  courses  of  instruction  were  to  be  established. 
The  veteran  Professor  Dwight,  founder  and  head  of 
that  school,  gave,  after  full  inquiry,  his  written  pledge 
to  send  Mr.  Schouler's  name  to  the  trustees,  which 
was  thought  to  be  a  virtual  appointment;  he  failed, 
however,  to  do  so,  and  possibly  a  schism  in  the  school 
over  modes  of  instruction  which  followed  simulta- 
neously with  Professor  Dwight's  retirement,  in  the 
summer  of  1890,  may  explain  a  mysterious  change  of 
mind.  Scarcely,  however,  had  our  author  rallied 
from  his  disappointment  in  that  quarter,  when  an 
unexpected  offer  came  from  his  friend.  Professor 
Herbert  B.  Adams,  and  the  historical  department  of 
Johns  Hopkins  University,  before  the  year  ended, 
which  has  led  to  the  happiest  possible  consummation 
of  his  annual  work  in  University  instruction.  All 
these  staff  positions  as  lecturer  our  author  has  since 
steadily  retained,  increasing  in  each  instance  the 
extent  of  the  courses  for  which  he  was  originally 
engaged,  and  serving  to  supplement  his  labors  with 
the  pen. 

As  a  lecturer.  Professor  Schouler  shows  most  of 
the  qualities  which  marked  him  for  high  forensic 
promise  in  his  younger  days,  —  an  attractive  person, 
an  impressive  manner,  good  delivery,  and  a  musical 
voice,  earnest  in  its  deeper  utterances.  Sedate  and 
moderate,  as  befits  a  class  instructor,  and  rather 
inclining  to  simple  and  natural  exposition,  and  yet 
always  full  of  his  subject  and  at  times  rapid  and 
vehement  when  kindled  in  demonstration,  he  arrests 
the  attention  of  his  audience  and  holds  it  securely 
till  his  appointed  hour  ends.     His  dignified  alertness 


BIOGRAPHY,  295 

checks  all  indecorum;  but  applause  follows  an  occa- 
sional sally  or  stirring  expression.  No  lecturer  could 
ask  for  more  attentive  listeners.  Sometimes  he  turns 
aside  for  a  comment  upon  the  general  aspects  of  life, 
and  the  close  of  each  course  supplies  usually  some 
eloquent  exordium  which  brings  the  students  to  his 
desk  for  a  last  grasp  of  the  hand ;  but  for  the  most 
part  he  keeps  closely  to  his  immediate  subject,  devel- 
oping the  law  or  narrative  just  as  he  had  investigated, 
and  with  his  constant  sense  of  proportion,  and  making 
each  lecture  reach  a  certain  stage  or  climax.  Lead- 
ing principles  are  thus  elucidated,  and  their  limita- 
tions clearly  defined,  with  apt  and  ample  illustrations 
not  only  from  reports,  but  from  daily  life  besides ;  a 
constant  object  with  him  being  to  encourage  the 
student  to  observe  with  his  own  eyes  among  daily 
circumstances  where  and  how  a  legal  principle  should 
apply.  He  cannot,  of  course,  conduct  an  oral  quiz ; 
but  students  accost  him  before  or  after  the  lecture 
with  points  of  inquiry ;  and  wherever  they  may  find 
him,  he  makes  himself  as  helpful  to  his  pupils  as 
possible.  Written  examinations  have  attested  the 
practical  value  of  the  instruction  he  annually  imparts. 
He  does  not  write  out  his  lectures  at  length;  but, 
saturated  with  his  subject,  he  prepares  a  mere  skele- 
ton sheet  or  brief  for  his  convenience,  having  ready 
at  his  left  hand  a  small  package  of  slips  for  such 
special  reference  or  quotation  during  the  hour  as 
convenience  may  suggest.  An  impressive  thought 
or  illustration  gets  thus  woven  specially  into  his 
routine  exposition;  and  often  does  an  idea  worth 
inculcating  from  the  platform  occur  to  him  as  he 
walks  to  or  from  the  lecture-room.  For  nothing  can 
go  wholly  by  rote  with  so  systematic  a  thinker,  who 
brings  all  knowledge  to  bear  upon  immediate  action 


296  BIOGRAPHY. 

and  events.  This  fresh  contact  with  young  men  is 
to  the  author  himself  a  well  of  inspiration.  There  is 
not  too  much  of  it  to  tire  the  brain;  and  he  agrees 
with  a  writer  who  once  observed:  "I  have  learned 
much  from  my  teachers,  more  from  my  equals,  but 
most  from  my  pupils." 

Allusion  is  made  in  some  of  the  foregoing  essays 
to  our  author's  habits  of  literary  work  and  to  his 
general  methods  of  study  and  composition. ^  Orderly 
arrangement  and  the  economy  of  time  are  traits 
strongly  characteristic  of  him  from  early  youth.  He 
originated  by  experience  his  own  routine  of  life;  and 
his  early  diaries  show  how  incessant  was  his  mental 
training  from  the  time  he  left  college  until  he  became 
a  recognized  scholar  and  writer.  A  "  perambulation 
book"  is  repeatedly  mentioned  in  his  journals,  which 
he  carried  in  his  pocket  on  his  daily  walk,  with  catch- 
words and  cues  to  refresh  the  memory  of  studies  as 
he  repeated  them  aloud.  Another  book  which  he 
kept,  such  as  young  students  are  more  familiar  with, 
was  the  "common-place  book;  "  of  which  three  neat 
volumes  are  still  preserved,  covering  the  first  twenty 
years  of  his  majority,  and  traversing  a  wide  field  of 
general  reading,  prose  and  poetic,  grave  and  gay, 
solid  and  imaginative,  from  Aristotle  to  Mark  Twain. 
On  the  whole,  however,  these  volumes  show  the 
special  bent  of  his  mind  to  American  history  and 
statesmanship;  they  are  concise  rather  than  elabo- 
rate; and,  not  to  be  too  much  harassed  by  either 
diary  or  common-place  book  in  his  productive  man- 
hood, he  contrived,  when  about  forty,  a  fair  single 
substitute  for  them  both.  This  was  the  use  of  long 
envelopes   of  pasteboard  or  stiff   paper  marked  for 

1  See  pages  40,  58. 


BIOGRAPHY.  297 

each  succeeding  calendar  year.  Upon  prepared  slips, 
about  the  size  of  an  ordinary  bank  check,  he  would 
enter  quotations  from  his  reading,  or  the  rough 
thoughts  or  comments  that  might  be  wrought  out  for 
some  further  occasion,  or  else  some  casual  diary  de- 
scription worthy  of  his  later  reference ;  all  such  slips, 
wherever  written,  went  into  the  envelope  of  the  year; 
and  it  was  easy  to  add  to  the  same  collection  a  contem- 
porary newspaper  cutting  or  printed  circular  worth 
recalling.  All  this  served  the  stead  of  a  blank-book. 
Out  of  a  year's  envelope  the  contents  might  be 
poured  upon  a  table  at  any  time  and  read  over  or 
separated  as  his  immediate  convenience  required. 
For  lecture  purposes  the  author  has  kept  special  and 
appropriate  "  scrap  envelopes  "  of  this  character. 

"Method,"  observes  our  author,  "and  frugahty  of 
time  should  be  handmaids  of  all  intellectual  industry 
which  involves  considerable  pains  and  study.  And 
especially  in  that  general  range  of  reading  which 
every  accomplished  scholar  needs  to  liberalize  his 
special  researches,  the  pen-work  should  be  econo- 
mized. It  is  lost  labor  to  carry  in  volumes  of  manu- 
script what  ought  to  be  imbedded  in  the  brain ;  for 
after  all  the  note-book  is  mainly  for  review,  for  exact 
statement,  and  to  aid  the  mind  later  in  its  own  ener- 
gizing. A  famous  scholar  has  well  said  that  what  is 
twice  read  is  easier  remembered  than  what  is  once 
transcribed;  and  it  is  my  own  experience  that  by 
jotting  doAvn  in  pencil,  while  one  reads,  either  on  a 
marker  or  a  fly-leaf,  the  number  of  each  page  which 
contains  a  striking  thought,  and  then  recurring  to 
those  pages  after  the  volume  has  been  finished,  a 
second  perusal  may  confirm  sufficiently  the  mental 
impression.  And  as  for  those  extensive  common- 
place books  with  topical  index,  which  we  see  exposed 


298  BIOGRAPHY. 

for  sale,  I  cannot  conceive  of  any  productive  writer 
going  far  with  it;  for  all  such  self-imposed  tasks 
when  considerable  suit  only  a  literary  novice,  or  the 
man  of  leisure  and  superficial  culture  who  seeks  to 
entertain  his  friends  agreeably.  Of  the  mind,  and  of 
memory  itself,  prodigious  feats  have  been  recorded, 
as  to  some  illustrious  scholars,  which  I  am  wary  of 
believing.  The  average  player  of  a  stock  company 
shows  you,  to  be  sure,  how  greatly  the  mere  memory 
may  be  strengthened  by  exercise ;  but  the  memory  an 
intellectual  man  wishes  is  that  which  puts  what 
others  have  said  to  the  vital  nutriment  of  his  own 
thoughts.  I  would  rather  have  a  good  selecting 
memory  than  an  omnivorous  memory  (if  such  there 
be)  which  holds  everything  and  can  fetch  on  demand. 
One  intellectual  mind  draws  one  thought,  and 
another  mind  another,  from  the  same  great  predeces- 
sor; and  it  must  often  be  a  trick  of  playing  off  the 
particular  thing  that  haunted  one's  memory  from 
association,  like  an  oil  portrait  that  happens  to  hang 
over  the  mantelpiece,  which  imposed  on  credulous 
admirers  the  belief  so  often  expressed  that  everything 
was  remembered  by  that  individual." 

Thus  occupied  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century, 
our  author  has  made  Boston  his  place  of  residence; 
living  the  hotel  life,  at  the  Boylston,  the  Evans,  the 
Brunswick,  successively,  with  his  wife,  the  sole  com- 
panion of  his  home,  while  using  his  own  quiet  office 
as  his  literary  work-shop.  Bright  and  cheerful  situa- 
tions, with  sun  and  air  and  glimpses  of  green,  and 
yet  close  to  the  main  arteries  of  city  life,  have  always 
been  their  choice;  and  for  six  years  or  more  they 
have  occupied  apartments  at  the  Hotel  Bristol,  on  a 
charming  corner  which  commands  the  most  famous 


BIOGRAPHY.  299 

residential  square  and  the  noblest  architectural  cluster 
of  buildings  of  Boston,  or  perhaps  of  any  American 
city.  But  Professor  Schouler  has  passed  many 
winter  months  in  Washington,  while  busy  over  his 
history,  "not  so  much  for  society,"  he  expresses  it, 
"as  for  study; "  and  for  the  last  six  years  his  lecture- 
work  has  occupied  him  there  and  in  Baltimore  for 
two  winter  months  regularly.  With  old  friends  and 
new  to  thus  revisit,  two  brothers  resident  in  Maryland 
with  their  families,  and  a  genial  and  hospitable  society 
abounding  in  the  region,  these  variations  of  a  winter 
season's  surroundings  are  always  welcome  to  him,  at 
the  same  time  that  his  New  England  attachment 
remains  sincere.  "Boston  is  aricla  nutrix,^^  he  some- 
times says,  "for  such  a  one  as  myself;  but  the  best 
reference  libraries  of  the  country  are  there  at  my 
command,  and  the  best  means  of  general  recreation; 
and  after  all  a  real  Bostonian  can  never  feel  so  much 
at  home  in  any  other  city." 

But  Dr.  Schouler's  chief  happiness  is  found  at  his 
summer  home  among  the  White  Mountains,  where, 
with  his  wife,  he  spends  some  five  months  of  every 
year,  and  where  alone  they  have  the  freedom  of 
housekeeping.  Both  enjoy  a  simple  social  life,  and 
are  great  lovers  of  natural  scenery.  Boarding  at 
"Intervale,"  a  hamlet  of  famed  North  Conway,  dur- 
ing the  first  three  summers  following  their  marriage, 
and  returning  thither  after  two  more  experimental 
seasons  elsewhere,  they  fixed  upon  this  enchanting 
region  and  the  White  Mountains  for  a  permanent 
summer  residence.  Our  author  purchased  on  the 
main  road  a  disused  pasture  fringed  with  stately 
pines,  and  having  a  sloping  and  graceful  knoll,  near 
the  road,  which  commands  an  enchanting  view  of  the 
Presidential  range  through  the  trees  and  beyond  the 


300  BIOGRAPHY. 

green  valley;  and  here  in  1878,  next  to  the  costly 
and  extensive  estate  of  Mr.  Erastus  B.  Bigelow, 
inventor  of  the  carpet  loom,  he  built  an  appropriate 
summer  villa ;  setting  the  first  example  in  the  town 
of  Conway  and  its  mountain  neighborhood  of  a  pretty 
cottage,  artistically  planned,  with  fine  natural  sur- 
roundings, yet  such  as  a  city  man  of  moderate  means 
might  build  for  his  summer  use.  With  a  long  and 
curving  red  roof  sloping  on  each  side  to  the  cedar 
piazza  posts,  the  plan  of  this  colonial  cottage  origi- 
nated in  the  bright  seaside  home  of  our  author's  boy- 
hood in  Boston's  island  ward,  as  memory  reproduced 
it;  and  from  each  piazza  looking  northward  and 
southward,  as  well  as  from  every  window  of  the  little 
wooden  house  so  admirably  finished,  some  lovely 
mountain  landscape  feasts  the  eye  with  great  variety. 
When  this  Schouler  cottage  was  built,  it  stood  some- 
what remote  from  the  cluster  of  summer  boarding- 
houses  comprising  Intervale ;  but  now  quite  a  number 
of  pretty  villas  adorn  the  landscape  besides  the  noble 
Bigelow  mansion,  and  the  colony  of  summer  cottagers 
has  become  a  considerable  one.  No  longer  dependent 
upon  North  Conway  for  its  mails.  Intervale  now 
boasts  its  own  post-office,  express,  and  telegraph, 
besides  a  junction  railroad-station. 

Such  have  been  the  neighboring  changes  within 
less  than  twenty  years,  since  our  author  chose  the 
township  of  Conway  as  his  dwelling-place  for  five 
months  of  the  year;  and  in  this  neighborhood  he  is 
always  happy,  being  well  known  and  esteemed  both 
by  residents  and  the  summer  people,  whose  common 
interests  he  has  done  much  to  unite.  He  has  been  a 
liberal  benefactor  of  the  Public  Library  of  North 
Conway,  founded  in  1887,  and  as  its  most  active 
director  from  the  start,  is  still  greatly  depended  upon 


BIOGRAPHY.  301 

for  selecting  and  purchasing  books,  supervising  the 
details  of  management,  and  engineering  summer 
entertainments  for  its  benefit.  He  is  treasurer  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  North  Conway,  and  a  leading 
member  of  its  vestry.  As  a  good  churchman  he 
serves,  besides,  during  the  winter  season  on  the  vestry 
of  St.  Paul's  Church  in  Boston.  Schouler's  fondness 
for  the  mountains  is  shown  in  all  his  writings,  which 
abound  in  felicitous  images  and  metaphors  from 
brook,  forest,  and  pastoral  studies;  and  many  a 
striking  passage  of  his  history  which  sums  up  indi- 
vidual character,  has  he  thought  out  while  rambling 
among  the  pine  woods  or  reclining  solitary  under  a 
favorite  tree  with  Moat  Mountain's  outline  before  his 
vision  pencilled  upon  a  blue  sky.  Moat  is  North 
Conway's  appropriate  sentinel.  There  is  no  moun- 
tain region  of  Europe  or  America  which  to  him  seems 
so  closely  blended  with  human  nature  in  its  essential 
moods  as  these  supreme  granite  hills  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, —  neither  too  awful  nor  too  commonplace  for 
man's  habitation ;  and  as  for  this  emerald  gateway  of 
the  region  which  North  Conway  furnishes,  so  varied, 
he  affirms,  are  its  landscape  enchantments  within  a 
radius  of  fifteen  miles,  that  he  contrives  a  new  walk 
and  a  new  ride  for  every  season.  In  younger  years 
he  has  travelled  in  every  remote  quarter  and  scaled 
almost  every  considerable  peak  of  these  White  Moun- 
tains ;  and  he  still  enjoys  a  day's  tramp  through  the 
level  of  the  region  better  than  any  other  recreation. 

Alternating  thus  in  his  external  surroundings  for 
different  portions  of  the  year,  our  author  is  enabled 
to  freshen  periodically  his  literary  tasks.  What 
many  would  find  distracting  in  a  change  of  scene  is 
to  him  a  positive  help.  Turning  from  law  composi- 
tion to  historical,  he  diversifies  his  labor  still  further 


302  BIOGRAPHY. 

by  composing  in  one  place  and  collecting  important 
material  in  another.  No  weeks  are  more  fruitful  of 
historical  composition  than  the  earlier  ones  passed  at 
his  mountain  home,  before  the  hot  season  fairly  sets 
in,  with  the  summer-boarder  crowd  and  his  brief 
allowance  of  vacation ;  for  now  there  is  no  great  refer- 
ence library  to  consult,  but  materials  must  have  been 
already  shaped  and  at  hand.  City  life,  on  the  other 
hand,  offers  the  true  opportunity  for  gathering  all 
stores  of  special  information,  when  composition  flags ; 
and  while  at  Boston  he  writes  with  the  key  turned  in 
the  morning  quiet  of  his  office,  which  is  opened  for 
business  at  noon  hours  only ;  or  else  composes  in  the 
quiet  Athenaeum  or  Bar  Association  Library,  where 
such  books  as  he  may  need  for  reference  are  close  at 
hand. 

Steadiness  and  concentration  have  served  him  well 
habitually  in  all  these  years ;  for  the  whole  pen-work 
which  heavily  tasks  the  brain  is  completed  each  day 
by  noon.  While  in  Boston,  office  business  and  corre- 
spondence come  next  in  order,  followed  in  the  after- 
noon, perhaps,  by  lectures  or  some  plodding  literary 
task.  Under  no  circumstances  is  the  evening  robbed 
by  him  of  its  needful  rest  and  recreation  to  advance 
the  creation  of  a  book  or  essay;  nor,  unless  some 
social  engagement  keeps  him  up  longer,  does  he 
retire  later  than  ten  o'clock  at  night.  An  early  riser 
throughout  the  winter  months,  he  breakfasts  about 
seven  when  in  Boston  or  wherever  else  he  may  break- 
fast alone,  and  between  eight  and  nine  o'clock  in  the 
forenoon  he  is  well  immersed  in  the  day's  chief 
literary  task.  For  a  winter  evening  he  enjoys  with 
his  wife  an  occasional  theatrical  performance,  concert 
or  opera,  taking  with  him  a  small  nickel  trumpet 
that  all  may  not  go  on  as  a  pantomime ;  quite  rarely 


BIOGRAPHY.  303 

he  may  be  seen  in  city  club  or  society ;  and,  if  spending 
the  evening  at  home,  he  scans  the  latest  magazines 
and  light  literature,  often  reading  aloud  to  his  wife, 
or  takes  a  hand  with  friends  at  whist  or  euchre.  In 
card-playing,  as  in  all  other  games  of  recreation,  he 
would  rather  play  for  pleasure  than  antagonism. 

Twenty  years  of  such  a  routine  life  have  been  three 
times  broken.  In  the  winter  of  1876-77  our  author, 
with  his  wife,  made  a  pleasure  excursion  at  the 
South,  visiting  more  especially  Florida  and  Louisiana, 
and  passing  and  repassing  through  AVashington. 
That  was  the  famous  winter  when  the  Presidential 
contest  between  Tilden  and  Hayes  culminated  in  the 
electoral  commission  established  by  Congress,  which 
declared  the  Republican  candidate  chosen  j  and  upon 
the  constitutional  aspects  of  an  "electoral  count,"  as 
first  agitated  with  pretentious  claims  made  on  behalf 
of  a  President  pro  tern,  of  the  senate,  our  author  pre- 
pared and  published  an  historical  essay  at  his  own 
cost  under  the  pseudonyme  of  "Jurist,"  and  made 
free  distribution  of  it  among  our  members  of  Con- 
gress. He  saw  the  rival  and  distracted  State  legisla- 
tures in  session  while  at  New  Orleans,  and,  learning 
the  sentiment  of  leading  citizens  there  quite  accu- 
rately, published  it  when  passing  through  Washington 
on  his  return.  In  1889,  he  visited  Europe  with  his 
wife  for  a  second  time,  and  passed  seven  memorable 
months  in  the  complete  tour  of  Southern  France, 
Italy,  England,  and  Scotland,  besides  visiting  the 
World's  Exposition  of  that  year  at  Paris.  Usually 
in  good  health,  he  had  broken  down  by  over-work 
before  starting  on  the  voyage  from  New  York,  and  a 
rheumatic  affection  which  troubled  him  upon  his 
travels  settled  finally  in  the  eyes,  and  compelled  him 


304  BIOGRAPHY. 

at  the  age  of  fifty  to  resort  for  the  first  time  to 
glasses.  "My  eyesight,"  says  Dr.  Schouler,  "had 
been  as  acute,  all  these  preceding  years,  as  my  hearing 
was  dull,  and  I  suffered  undoubtedly  in  the  end  by 
my  own  imprudence  in  straining  it;  for,  being  bent 
upon  a  long  holiday,  I  had  labored  so  incessantly  for 
six  months  to  prepare  for  it,  reading  finely  printed 
proofs  by  night  in  addition  to  my  daily  labors,  that 
when  vacation  came,  I  stood  in  full  need  of  it."  The 
warning  monition  not  to  abuse  nature's  gifts  came  in 
good  season ;  and,  once  more  in  normal  health  by  the 
time  he  returned  to  work,  our  author  took  his  lesson 
seriously  to  heart,  as  other  literary  workers  should 
do.  A  third  European  journey  by  Gibraltar,  the 
Mediterranean,  and  Genoa,  in  the  spring  of  1894, 
occupied  him  and  his  wife  in  traversing  Southern 
Germany,  the  Rhine,  Holland,  and  Belgium. 

Peculiar  conditions  of  mature  existence  have 
caused,  as  one  might  say,  the  insensible  formation 
of  a  rind  over  the  author's  common  intercourse  which 
those  casually  accosting  him  seldom  penetrate ;  a  few 
pleasant  words  of  greeting  and  common-place  suffic- 
ing perhaps  with  such  as  find  communication  an 
effort  and  have  nothing  particular  to  impart.  With 
such  he  finds  it  most  natural  to  lead  by  asking  his 
own  questions  and  receiving  replies.  The  poet's 
lines  seem  often  to  apply  to  one  who,  like  Dr.  Schouler, 
never  forces  nor  monopolizes  a  conversation :  — 

"The  best  of  thoughts  that  he  hath  known 
For  lack  of  listeners  is  unsaid." 

But  it  is  very  different  in  the  home  circle,  or  with 
sympathetic  acquaintances,  who  can  take  up  the 
other  end  of  his  ear-tube  and  draw  him  into  congenial 
talk  or  discussion.     One   who  by  this  time   cannot 


BIOGRAPHY.  305 

hear  general  conversation,  and  must  endure  as  a 
patient  looker-on  long  scenes  which  under  his  natural 
and  earlier  conditions  he  would  have  been  quickest 
to  appreciate,  is  certainly  at  a  social  disadvantage. 
But  when  given  his  cue,  Schouler  is  found  one  of 
the  most  lively  and  interesting  of  conversers ;  he  is 
amiable,  sympathetic,  and  considerate  of  those  about 
him ;  and  most  of  all  he  has  a  mirthfulness  which, 
once  aroused,  makes  him  the  life  of  his  company,  and 
promotes  good  fellowship  at  once.  Nicknames,  mim- 
icry, droll  and  taking  phrases,  repartee,  and  a  scintilla- 
tion of  wit  and  delicate  fancy  which  lights  up  all 
literature  and  all  pliilosophy  pour  forth  in  his  talk 
when  he  is  thus  in  high  spirits.  Evanescent  and 
hard  as  fireflies  to  catch,  but  suiting  admirably  the 
occasion,  impromptu  generally  and  instantaneous, 
this  flitting  fun  is  of  much  the  same  sort  that  made 
his  college  papers  so  attractive;  he  gets  humor  out 
of  sober  subjects,  and  has  a  light  way  of  poking  fun 
at  his  heaviest  tasks,  which  is  one  reason,  no  doubt, 
why  he  carries  the  burden  of  them  so  easily. 

While  tarrying  at  Washington,  when  a  bachelor,  in 
the  house  of  some  personal  friends,  he  would  produce 
his  watch  and  key  about  bedtime  and  say:  "Now  I 
will  wind  up  my  watch  and  then  wind  up  the  stairs." 
"Ah!  the  power  of  money,"  was  the  exclamation  of 
one  in  a  family  group  which  discussed  the  threadbare 
theme  of  their  poverty.  "Yes,"  was  his  response, 
setting  them  all  in  better  humor;  "a  stronghold  in 
the  day  of  trouble."  When  two  young  ladies,  Martha 
and  Bertha,  both  of  whom  he  much  liked,  visited  his 
wife  at  the  mountains  recently,  he  amused  them  on  a 
morning  ride  by  addressing  various  remarks  to  them 
collectively  as  "Rtha."  In  his  office,  as  well  as  in 
the  home  circle,  his  spirits  have  found  incessant  play 

20 


306  BIOGRAPHY. 

in  jests  which  have  a  touch  of  pleasant  satire  and 
exaggeration.  When  young  at  the  bar,  and  perform- 
ing that  function  which  all  of  the  profession  so  well 
appreciate,  he  used  to  remark,  "  '  The  lawyer  shall 
have  his  fee,'  saith  my  Lord  Coke."  "What!" 
asked  a  fellow-lawyer,  jestingly,  while  he  was  deep  in 
devising  the  prosecution  of  claims  against  the  United 
States,  "are  you  in  favor  of  preventing  the  public 
debt  from  being  paid  off?"  "Yes,"  was  his  not  less 
jesting  reply,  "and  in  favor,  too,  of  judiciously 
increasing  it."  One  maternal  client  called  in  those 
busy  years  to  receive  her  settlement,  bringing  an 
adult  son  with  her;  and  the  latter  seemed  quite 
desirous  of  carrying  the  government  draft  away  to 
get  it  cashed  by  the  paymaster,  contrary  to  the  office 
rule,  which  protected  the  attorney's  lien  on  the  fund 
for  recompense ;  but,  seeing  a  dubious  expression  on 
our  young  lawyer's  face,  he  added,  "I  can  leave 
mother  here  till  I  come  back."  "That  is  not  quite 
the  collateral  which  would  suit  the  transaction,"  was 
his  ready  answer.  Honest  as  the  day  in  all  profes- 
sional relations,  and  sometimes  unreasonably  moderate 
in  his  charges,  Schouler  has  had  many  a  sly  lunge  at 
his  sober  function  of  public  administrator:  "One 
touch  of  public  administration,"  he  is  wont  to  say  in 
a  sort  of  mock  rhapsody,  "makes  the  whole  world 
next  of  kin."  And  with  reference  to  his  dignified 
law  treatises,  he  sometimes  indulges  in  the  light 
fancy  of  an  illustrated  edition,  —  dilating  upon  such 
fitting  wood-cuts  as  the  wife  pledging  her  husband's 
credit  for  necessaries,  or  the  judge  granting  habeas 
corpus  for  the  custody  of  an  infant.  All  these  are 
fair  specimens  —  neither  the  best  nor  the  worst  —  of 
our  author's  light  ebullitions  in  social  company  where 
he  is  intimate.     There  is  nothing  caustic  in  his  wit, 


BIOGRAPHY.  307 

nor  the  slightest  soil  of  coarseness  or  indecency. 
Like  his  father  before  him,  he  enjoys  with  the  young 
and  ingenuous  the  pretence  of  misunderstanding 
what  was  said ;  but  he  rarely  relates  stories  or  anec- 
dotes at  greater  length  than  did  ^sop. 

Music,  too,  is  an  inseparable  element  of  our 
author's  nature,  whether  in  graver  or  gayer  moods; 
and  in  his  piano  he  has  found  the  constant  companion 
and  solace  of  enforced  solitude.  "  My  ear  for  music," 
he  sometimes  says  lightly,  "  is  the  ear  that  I  retained 
longest."  With  the  classical  school  which  Beethoven 
brought  to  perfection,  and  Mendelssohn  delicately 
fenced  in,  he  is  amply  familiar;  but  for  obvious 
reasons  the  modern  technique  school  and  the  latest 
modern  masters  he  has  hot  much  cultivated.  While 
he  heard  easily,  all  the  popular  street  music  of  the 
day  he  readily  caught  up  and  memorized,  so  that 
each  year  moved  on  with  its  own  musical  calendar; 
and  such  earlier  music  he  can  still  reproduce  on  his 
instrument  by  the  hour  together,  —  that,  for  instance, 
of  his  military  service  year,  of  which  not  a  strain  is 
forgotten.  He  whistles  much  while  at  work  in  his 
study,  or  bursts  out  with  some  odd  snatch  of  poetry 
set  to  original  music.  For  several  summers  preced- 
ing his  trip  to  Europe  in  1889,  he  presided  at  the 
little  organ  of  his  summer  church  at  North  Conway, 
organizing  and  training  most  acceptably  with  his 
wife's  aid  a  voluntary  choir  each  year. 

In  the  summer  entertainments,  too,  at  his  mountain 
home,  whether  for  charity  or  religion,  he  has  long  been 
prominent,  as  stage  or  business  manager,  improvising 
various  performances  when  younger;  and  on  one 
occasion  he  played  admirably  in  private  theatricals, 
and  sustained  a  leading  part  through  long  dialogues 
by   reading  with   his  eye  the  motion   of   the    other 


308  BIOGRAPHY. 

speaker's  lips.  There  has  been  no  gnarled  or  eccen- 
tric growth  in  him  of  habits  or  character,  such  as 
marked  infirmity  is  apt  to  engender;  but  he  carries 
along  the  affairs  committed  to  him  (which  are  many) 
with  good  sense  and  discretion.  A  temper  self- 
reliant,  and  perhaps  irritable  and  stern  when  opposed, 
is  kept  under  Christian  self-discipline ;  and  the  whole 
tenor  of  his  life  has  been  to  harmonize  and  unite, 
while  in  affection  he  is  generous  and  sincere  to 
tenderness.  _.— -^ 


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